Podcasts about Western Asia

This episode explores how colonial histories, global capitalism, and systemic domination shape Western Asia or the Mashreq (often condensed as the Middle East) (post)colonial realities and, consequently, how we talk about the region. Joined by activist-scholars Dr Lina Koleilat and PhD candidate Tasnim Sammak, we unpack how to discuss and analyse the political machinations in the Mashreq, particularly in relation to recent developments in Syria. The episode also shows how diaspora communities situate these movements within the broader context of resistance against global power systems.The continuing and devastating Israeli genocidal assault on Gaza starkly shows how modernity, in its guise of progress and order, relegates Palestinian life to the peripheries of liberal humanity. It exposes the liberal world order—an order that prides itself on values of freedom and equality—as one that simultaneously perpetuates occupation, dispossession, and violence, dehumanising certain lives in favour of maintaining global capitalist order.Dr. Koleilat is a writer and an activist-scholar. She is a specialist in historical and ethnographic approaches to the study of protests, resistance, social movements and religion. She has been working with and learning from communities who resist war and government oppression to understand the genealogy of activism within specific historical, cultural and political contexts. Lina comes to the questions that drive her work and activism as a Lebanese-Palestinian scholar born and raised in Beirut and who directly experienced the horrors of war, dispossession and militarism.Tasnim Sammak is a PhD candidate at Monash University, a faculty member of education, and a Palestinian organiser with Free Palestine Coalition Naarm and Unionists for Palestine. Tasnim's grandparents were exiled from Yaffa during the Nakba in 1948 to a refugee camp in Gaza, where her father was born. She helped found the Elbit Out of Victoria campaign.

Kathy Kelly is board president of World BEYOND War. From 2022 to the present, she has co-coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she has co-coordinated an international network to assist young Afghans forced to flee their country. She made over two dozen trips to Afghanistan from 2010 – 2019, living with young Afghan Peace Volunteers in a working-class neighborhood in Kabul. With Voices in the Wilderness companions, from 1996 – 2003, she traveled twenty-seven times to Iraq, defying the economic sanctions and remaining in Iraq throughout the Shock and Awe bombing and the initial weeks of the invasion. She joined subsequent delegations to the West Bank's Jenin Camp in 2002 during and after Israeli attacks, to Lebanon during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah and to Gaza, in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead and following the 2013 Operation Pillar of Defense. Kathy has been an educator for most of her life, but she believes children of war and those who are victims of violence have been her most important teachers.

In this talk, Dr Olivia Mason traced the history of Jordan's nature reserves in the British archives, exploring how nature reserves bring global and situated resource narratives into conversation, how they continue imperial spatial imaginations after periods of administrative colonialism, and the connections between conservation agendas and imperial geopolitical alliances. Meet the speakers Olivia Mason is a Lecturer in the school of Geography, Politics, and Sociology at Newcastle University. Her work sits across cultural, environmental, and political geography, and is broadly centred on mobility politics and resource colonialism, and to date has mostly been focused on Jordan. She is currently PI of a research project entitled 'Cultural politics of nature reserves: resource tensions, (post)colonial state making, and Bedouin in Jordan' that explores relationships between Bedouin, environmental changes, and nature conservation. Frederick Wojnarowski is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, LSE. Fred is interested in the political and economic anthropology and history of the Middle East, especially Jordan, as well as broader questions of social change and socio-political categorisation. His research at the LSE examines the intersection of discourses of water scarcity, environmental justice and corruption in rural Jordan. Michael Mason is Director of the LSE Middle East Centre and Professor of Environmental Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment, LSE and an Associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. He is interested in ecological politics and governance as applied to questions of accountability, security and sovereignty. This research addresses both global environmental politics and regional environmental change in Western Asia/the Middle East.

For this special weekend podcast - John chats with Simon Moya Smith and Julie Francella for their "We're Still Here" segment. Simon is an Oglala Lakota and Chicano journalist. He's a contributing writer at NBC News and TheNation.com. Julie is a mental health professional with over 30 years of experience in handling complex trauma with Indigenous youth and families. She is an enrolled member of the Ojibway of Batchewana First Nation Reserve, and teaches Indigenous Studies at Durham College, focusing on the impacts of colonization on First Nations people. Then, he interviews Mehran Khaghani who is another comedian from the Boston region, but born in London and raised, in part, in Turkey and Iran aka the Boston of Western Asia. He's been on on Maz Jobrani's “Brown and Friendly” comedy tour, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, High Maintenance, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alexander the Great - king of MacedoniaAlexander III of Macedon (Ancient Greek: Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20 and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia, Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and Egypt. By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders We appreciate your support! Tune in for fresh episodes every week. Let's keep the conversation going,join our community, subscribe and grow with us!Support the showWelcome to 'Facts Or Nonsense Podcast,' where the past, present, and future converge in a symphony of discovery.

There is a global flax revival underway. In the great linen belt of North Western Europe, the land under cultivation has more than doubled in a decade and linen production is steadily increasing worldwide. After years of being spurned for ‘easier' man-made fibres, or cotton, once again linen is being valued. It may only be around half-a-percent of the world's textile fibres at present, but this time it is being grown not just for fine fabrics, but also because it's gentler on the land. It needs less water, fewer pesticides and fertilizers, and new uses are being found for it too, from creating surfboards to skis, from acoustic insulation to car doors.    Flax looks back as well as forward. Like no other yarn, it is the ancient fibre of civilisation. Linen has walked the long centuries alongside mankind. In Europe and Western Asia, its cultivation reaches back thousands of years to the beginning of human settlement and farming. It clothed the pharaohs of Egypt in life and death, it powered the ships of ancient Greece and Troy, it is mentioned more than 80 times in the Old Testament. This is the fabric that wrapped the Dead Sea Scrolls to keep them safe down the centuries.    Join us this month as Haptic and Hue travels to Ireland, once the undisputed centre of the world's linen processing industry to see what it is making of the great flax revival and how Irish linen is faring.   For more information about this episode and pictures of the people and places mentioned in this episode please go to https://hapticandhue.com/tales-of-textiles-series-6/

Wheat, soy, corn, potatoes—did we really domesticate the best crops nature had to offer? In this episode of the podcast, I speak with geneticist Padraic J. Flood, who specializes in population and quantitative genetics. Padraic left academia and a position in vertical farming to pursue a dream: the domestication of the Aardaker. The Aardaker is a small, unassuming plant native to moist temperate regions of Europe and Western Asia. It produces edible tubers similar to potatoes, but unlike potatoes, these tubers are rich in protein. This unique combination could yield several times more protein per hectare than soy. Not only that, but the Aardaker is delicious, versatile (much like a potato), and improves soil quality by fixing nitrogen. If Padraic succeeds in domesticating the Aardaker—improving its size, uniformity, and other key traits—he could create a super crop that requires less land, enriches the soil, and potentially returns vast areas of farming land to nature. ►Find out more about Padraic's work: www.aardaia.com These conversations are supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. The Andrea von Braun Foundation has provided me with full creative freedom with their support. As such, the views expressed in these episodes are my own and those of my guests.  

Carolyne introduces us to the study of ancient plant remains, especially carpology--the study of seeds, fruits, and flowers. In her case study she takes us to the site of Logardan in the Kurdish region, and explains what she could learn from the remains found in kilns. We discuss the role and uses of dung.2:02 archaeobotany4:08 how to train5:09 site of Logardan6:37 role of archaeobotany9:47 comparison with results from other fields12:30 main results from Logardan14:00 why use dung?18:28 dung sources and their properties20:37 plants as evidence for pottery production practices23:04 where else are you working?26:18 ideal situation for archaeobotanyCarolyne at OxfordCarolyne's ResearchGate pageCarolyne's Academia pageMusic by Ruba HillawiWebsite: http://wedgepod.orgYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgwEmail: wedgepod@gmail.comTwitter: @wedge_podPatreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod

Professor Eskandar Sadeghi (@eskandersadeghi) returns to Green & Red to discuss the latest developments in Israel's aggression toward Iran and its widening regional war. 
We focused on the new government in Iran, but even more on the Israeli assassinations of Iranian officials and the main political officer of Hamas in Tehran. And we then discussed what this means going forward and the ways that Israel is trying to draw the U.S. into a much expanded war.Bio//Eskander Sadeghi-Boroujerdi is a historian of Western Asia at the University of York. 
———-
Follow Green and Red//+G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠+Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠+ Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/9xRtXgVq)

Support the Green and Red Podcast//+Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast+Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠

Our Networks//+We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠+We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork+Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/)

This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Bob.

Good Sunday afternoon to you,I was blown away by the response to Wednesday's article about weight loss. The Twitter/X summary got more than 10 million views. Here it is, in case you missed it. Going forward, I am thinking of writing more alternative health stuff, as there seems to be a huge appetite for it. But today it's business as usual: gold. And I have a question for you …The Great Steppe stretches approximately 5,000 miles from the Pacific coast of China through Mongolia, Siberia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, reaching the Danube Delta and Hungary.Vast stretches of grassland, savanna, and shrubland—harsh and dry, devoid of trees and large vegetation—are sandwiched between forests to the north and mountains and deserts to the south. This region has connected Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and South Asia since the Paleolithic Age, serving as a predecessor to the Silk Road and the Eurasian land bridge.This ocean of grass is one of the world's largest ecosystems. Many remarkable species—elk, gazelle, brown bear, leopard, and tiger—have made it their home. So have many great nomadic empires—the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Mongols, the Huns, and the Göktürk Khaganate—all famous for their ferocity, horsemanship, and military might.The open space gives rise to mighty extremes of weather—howling winds, unbearable heat by day, and freezing cold by night. Humans could only survive by breeding creatures—goats, sheep, camels, and cattle—even hardier than themselves. Of all of these, perhaps the most essential to human survival and evolution was the horse.The horse was first domesticated on the Steppe about 6,000 years ago, probably by the Botai people in present-day Kazakhstan. Their horses—likely similar to today's Mongolian horse—were small, stocky, and hardy, able to travel long distances in trying conditions. The horse enabled tribes to guide their flocks over large distances as they searched for new grazing lands. It facilitated trade and exchange, and allowed them to form huge and terrifying armies.The fearsome Scythians were the first to use horses in battle, carrying stones, clubs, and bows as weapons. These marauding armies inspired fear. Their warriors were such brilliant horsemen that it seemed they and their horses were one creature, giving rise to the Greek myth of the centaur: wild, untamed, and violent; strong, fast, and ferocious; drunken, lawless, and lustful, with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a horse.The Greeks had a complicated relationship with the Scythians, both admiring and fearing them. Chiron, one of the centaurs famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine, tutored many of the greatest Greek heroes, including Hercules, Achilles, and Jason. Perhaps the Greeks exaggerated their barbarity to contrast it with their own sophistication and culture.In any case, while the centaur has endured in myth, it was not long before it was realized that man and beast were not one, and the practice of horse-riding spread beyond the Great Steppe. The horse became the primary mode of land transport for thousands of years.You really should subscribe.Then the Industrial Revolution came along. The first steam locomotive was developed in England in 1804. By the mid-19th century, railroads had become the primary mode of transportation for people and goods across much of the world. It was the beginning of the end for horses as a primary mode of transportation.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the automobile emerged. “Horseless carriages,” they were called. Karl Benz developed the first gasoline-powered car in 1885. By the early 1900s, cars had become a common sight on many roads, further diminishing the need for horses.Inventor Alexander Winton sought investment for his Winton Motor Carriage Company. “Get a horse!” a banker told him. “You're crazy if you think this fool contraption you've been wasting your time on will ever displace the horse.”Winton continues:“From my pocket, I took a clipping from the New York World of November 17, 1895, and asked him to read it. He brushed it aside. I insisted. It was an interview with Thomas A. Edison: ‘Talking of horseless carriages suggests to my mind that the horse is doomed… Ten years from now you will be able to buy a horseless vehicle for what you would pay today for a wagon and a pair of horses. The money spent in the keep of the horses will be saved and the danger to life will be much reduced.'”The banker threw back the clipping and snorted, “Another inventor talking.”Today, the horse is, for the most part, an expensive luxury. Its use is often just symbolic.How does this relate to goldHere is my question:Could you say the same about gold?The horse was transport for 6,000 years. It was transport for almost as long as gold was official money. It was “natural transport.”But just as transport changes as technology evolves, so does money.Perhaps gold is to money as the horse is to transport?Something to ponder this Sunday afternoon.(SPOILER: I don't think it is!)Tell your friends about this amazing article. As from later this week I will be at the Edinburgh Fringe, performing Shaping the Earth, a “lecture with funny bits” about the history of mining. I'm then taking the show to London on October 9th and 10th to the Museum of Comedy. Please come if you fancy a bit of “learning and laughter”. The Edinburgh link is here. And the London link is here.Plus:Charlie Morris is one of my closest mates and he writes what I think is one of the best investment newsletters out there, in fact a suite of them. I urge you to sign up for a free trial. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Good Sunday afternoon to you,I was blown away by the response to Wednesday's article about weight loss. The Twitter/X summary got more than 10 million views. Here it is, in case you missed it. Going forward, I am thinking of writing more alternative health stuff, as there seems to be a huge appetite for it. But today it's business as usual: gold. And I have a question for you …The Great Steppe stretches approximately 5,000 miles from the Pacific coast of China through Mongolia, Siberia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, reaching the Danube Delta and Hungary.Vast stretches of grassland, savanna, and shrubland—harsh and dry, devoid of trees and large vegetation—are sandwiched between forests to the north and mountains and deserts to the south. This region has connected Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and South Asia since the Paleolithic Age, serving as a predecessor to the Silk Road and the Eurasian land bridge.This ocean of grass is one of the world's largest ecosystems. Many remarkable species—elk, gazelle, brown bear, leopard, and tiger—have made it their home. So have many great nomadic empires—the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Mongols, the Huns, and the Göktürk Khaganate—all famous for their ferocity, horsemanship, and military might.The open space gives rise to mighty extremes of weather—howling winds, unbearable heat by day, and freezing cold by night. Humans could only survive by breeding creatures—goats, sheep, camels, and cattle—even hardier than themselves. Of all of these, perhaps the most essential to human survival and evolution was the horse.The horse was first domesticated on the Steppe about 6,000 years ago, probably by the Botai people in present-day Kazakhstan. Their horses—likely similar to today's Mongolian horse—were small, stocky, and hardy, able to travel long distances in trying conditions. The horse enabled tribes to guide their flocks over large distances as they searched for new grazing lands. It facilitated trade and exchange, and allowed them to form huge and terrifying armies.The fearsome Scythians were the first to use horses in battle, carrying stones, clubs, and bows as weapons. These marauding armies inspired fear. Their warriors were such brilliant horsemen that it seemed they and their horses were one creature, giving rise to the Greek myth of the centaur: wild, untamed, and violent; strong, fast, and ferocious; drunken, lawless, and lustful, with the upper body of a man and the lower body of a horse.The Greeks had a complicated relationship with the Scythians, both admiring and fearing them. Chiron, one of the centaurs famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine, tutored many of the greatest Greek heroes, including Hercules, Achilles, and Jason. Perhaps the Greeks exaggerated their barbarity to contrast it with their own sophistication and culture.In any case, while the centaur has endured in myth, it was not long before it was realized that man and beast were not one, and the practice of horse-riding spread beyond the Great Steppe. The horse became the primary mode of land transport for thousands of years.You really should subscribe.Then the Industrial Revolution came along. The first steam locomotive was developed in England in 1804. By the mid-19th century, railroads had become the primary mode of transportation for people and goods across much of the world. It was the beginning of the end for horses as a primary mode of transportation.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the automobile emerged. “Horseless carriages,” they were called. Karl Benz developed the first gasoline-powered car in 1885. By the early 1900s, cars had become a common sight on many roads, further diminishing the need for horses.Inventor Alexander Winton sought investment for his Winton Motor Carriage Company. “Get a horse!” a banker told him. “You're crazy if you think this fool contraption you've been wasting your time on will ever displace the horse.”Winton continues:“From my pocket, I took a clipping from the New York World of November 17, 1895, and asked him to read it. He brushed it aside. I insisted. It was an interview with Thomas A. Edison: ‘Talking of horseless carriages suggests to my mind that the horse is doomed… Ten years from now you will be able to buy a horseless vehicle for what you would pay today for a wagon and a pair of horses. The money spent in the keep of the horses will be saved and the danger to life will be much reduced.'”The banker threw back the clipping and snorted, “Another inventor talking.”Today, the horse is, for the most part, an expensive luxury. Its use is often just symbolic.How does this relate to goldHere is my question:Could you say the same about gold?The horse was transport for 6,000 years. It was transport for almost as long as gold was official money. It was “natural transport.”But just as transport changes as technology evolves, so does money.Perhaps gold is to money as the horse is to transport?Something to ponder this Sunday afternoon.(SPOILER: I don't think it is!)Tell your friends about this amazing article. As from later this week I will be at the Edinburgh Fringe, performing Shaping the Earth, a “lecture with funny bits” about the history of mining. I'm then taking the show to London on October 9th and 10th to the Museum of Comedy. Please come if you fancy a bit of “learning and laughter”. The Edinburgh link is here. And the London link is here.Plus:Charlie Morris is one of my closest mates and he writes what I think is one of the best investment newsletters out there, in fact a suite of them. I urge you to sign up for a free trial. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd   FULL TRANSCRIPT Wilmer Leon (00:00:00): As I'm sure most of you know by now, according to Iran State Media, Iran's President Ibrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister, Hussein Amir Abdulah, have died in a helicopter crash. There are a number of questions that this unfortunate turn of events presents. Was this simply an unfortunate accident as their helicopter traveled in dense fog along Iran's border with Azerbaijan, was the helicopter taken down? What's next for Iran? What's next for the region? Announcer (00:00:43): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Wilmer Leon (00:00:51): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this program, my guests and I have probing, provocative and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between the events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze these events that impact the global village in which we live. For insight into these issues, let's go to Beirut Lebanon. Let my guest, he's an award-winning broadcaster and independent journalist based in Beirut Lebanon. He's a policy consultant with the Community Media Advocacy Center, and you can find him and his work at Free Palestine dot video. He's Laith Marouf Laith. As always, welcome back. Laith Marouf (00:01:53): Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to be with you. Wilmer Leon (00:01:56): So let me start with who was former president Ibrahim Raisi. The western media describes him in less than glowing terms as a religious hardliner. He's seen as a potential successor to Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hamani. He was a former judge and allegedly a member of what the West calls the death commission, which forcibly disappeared and traditionally executed in secret thousands of political dissidents. Those are the allegations who was former President Ibrahim Raisi. Laith Marouf (00:02:41): Well, definitely he was part of the first generation that lived the Islamic Revolution and were on the front lines during the massacres that Iraq and the West commissioned in Iran, the use of chemical weapons against Iranians paid for by the Germans and the us. So he has that credential of living that revolution, and he was a judge and the accusations that are keep on being repeated there of thousands of prisoners being executed, we're talking about the terrorists that are part of the Mujah, the MEK terrorist organization that was housed in Iraq and funded by the West and is now housed in Albania that was responsible for the killing of almost 70,000 people in Iran through their terror campaign. That includes the killing of ministers and the government officials at the time. So the accusation against him is that he crushed the vessels, the terrorists that work for the CIA, that's his accusation against him and otherwise he was a judge and very respected within the country because of this background. Actually, whatever accusation that the west has against him as a discrediting thing, in reality, it is a positive thing for his reputation in Iran because of how he defended Iran against the terrorist. (00:04:31): The hype that we saw over the last month or so in the media about Rasi being going to be the next ayatollah after Hamina steps down, that there is no truth to that in terms of any speaking of that in Iranian society or Iranian media. In fact, we should take it as an indicator of that he was going to be assassinated. There's something that say it has the Sid Hasan Astra, the Secretary General of Hezbollah after the assassination of General Soleimani in 2020 by Trump. So Sid Hasan Asra a speech. He spoke about how when the media in the West suddenly gives attention to a leader in the region out of the blue and start giving them very high stature, that is maybe true, but it's not. That's an indicator of an assassination coming and that he spoke to General Soleimani the day before he was assassinated while he was in Beirut about that and warned him as he was flying to Baghdad on a domestic flight that this is actually even more worrisome that he was on a domestic flight given all this attention. So now we see kind of the same thing happening here, all this hype being pumped about Raisi in the month before the assassination, specifically since the retaliation of Iran against the assassination of its diplomats in the Damascus. So I see it as actually an indicator that he was going to be assassinated and now that's what actually happened. Wilmer Leon (00:06:26): To your point that this was an assassination, there are a couple of things that as soon as I heard that the helicopter went down that came to mind. One was, was it taken down? Apparently there were three helicopters flying in formation and his helicopter was one of the three, and it seems as though it just dropped out of the sky. They keep talking about the terrain, they keep talking about the fog. I know some US military trained helicopter pilot certified helicopter pilots. The first thing I did was call them and ask them when you heard fog, when you heard terrain, when you heard the helicopter went down. I said, what's the first thing that came to your mind? They all said, oh, they took that thing out the sky and they said, first of all, they all said to me as certified pilots, we would never have crashed our helicopter. That just was not going to happen short of some catastrophic mechanical failure. They said, which by the way, we are trained to deal with. They told me the quality of pilots that they have in Iran that those pilots, they say this goes all the way back to when Iran was an ally of the United States during the Shaw's time and that the protocols that were in place then are many of the same protocols that they follow today. (00:08:03): So there was a lot of information opinion that they gave to me, which said, and then they even mentioned, you got to understand the MEK along that region, that Azerbaijan is an ally of Israel or that there are elements within Azerbaijan that are so connect some of those dots for me please. Are these just the opinions of Ill-informed individuals or they said for the fact that the thing dropped out the sky without it, even a mayday call indicates that something was wrong here? Laith Marouf (00:08:43): Yeah, I mean, you mentioned a lot of important things. So first off, obviously there was no made call as you said. So we don't have any information about some problem happening on the helicopter. The other is that there was two other helicopters with it and they continued to reach their target and destination and they reached it. That's the question also, why didn't they stop and fly back and look for the other helicopter? That's a big indicator that there's something wrong that happened there that is not just a regular crash. The other thing is that the Iranian government took a very long time to really show us what happened and tell us that Rasi and his companions were dead. In fact, the hours after the crash, the Minister of Internal Security told the whole world that they received two calls from survivors on the plane, on the helicopter, and later on all the way around 2:00 AM PA on time, again, the minister of internal claim that they received a call from one of the crew members on the helicopter all the way that late saying that they were hearing the ambulances or the sirens in the area. (00:10:13): So while all of this was happening, the minute the helicopter crash was announced and called a soft landing, and then it took so long, I mean, this is Iran that has satellites. This is Iran that has drones that can fly and reach Israel and hit their targets thousands of kilometers away. I thought in my mind that either from the first minute that Raisi and his team were assassinated and they're dead, and the Iranians were delaying the announcements so they can tidy up their house and prepare for the transition and think about what they want to do if there's an actual assassination or that the Iranians were hiding the fact that he was alive and they were just milking it for support. This is what I thought during the whole night as they were doing this search, and obviously for them to finally tell us they're dead, that's in me confirmed that there was an assassination. (00:11:21): None of the stories that came from the Iranian government to the media during the quote search made any sense. And so now we know they're killed. I believe the Iranian government knows that they were killed and how they were killed, and I think given the fact that the Israelis have a tendency of assassinating political leaders as retaliation for their failures on the battlefield, this is historic. Look at how even recently, look at how they assassinated Hamas leadership in Beirut because they were failing on the ground in Gaza and they failed in the battle with Iran after they targeted the embassy in Damascus and Iran landed a huge blow on them and they were not able to retaliate. So their only usual behavior is to assassinate political leaders, and that's what we saw. The question is because Netanyahu attempted last month when attacking the embassy to drag the United States into a war because he sees Israel losing the battle on the ground. (00:12:47): He sees that Israel cannot even fight Hezbollah if a bigger war starts with Lebanon. He needs the United States to be around on the battlefield with him. He wanted to drag Iran into that war with the attack on the embassy, and they didn't retaliate in a way that created a war. And now he did this to try to drag again Iran into this war. But this is not what Iran wants. Iran has a clear plan with the access of resistance that we're seeing unfold over the last seven months, which is to chisel away at Israel slowly and cook it like a frog, a live frog boiling where it collapses internally, where all this support from the world collapses externally, and there's no need for a war for this Zionist colony to collapse, but Netanyahu wants a war. So I think the Iranians are not going to admit that this is an assassination because if they admit this an assassination, they have no choice but to carpet bomb the hell out of the Zionist colony, and that would derail the plan and will take it to the stage that Netanyahu wants it. So I think they're going to just bite the bullet and continue on their set plan and will not be dragged into, it's very sad. I mean, it's very sad that this is going to be what's going to happen, but that's the only thing path forward I see. Otherwise, if Iran decides to retaliate, we're going to be in World War three immediately. Wilmer Leon (00:14:24): And I think it's important for people to understand that there's a much longer term vision here, that the axis of resistance, they have a different worldview. We know that if the situation were reversed and either if somebody had shot an Netanyahu's playing out the sky or if this had happened to Tony Blinken while he was traveling in the region, that the bombs would be exploding by now. But I think there are economic concerns here that those in the region are taking into account war. As I said to Godfather, war is messy business war is very expensive. And with their economies under sanctioned, with their now finding ways to move and operate without the sanctions to go into a war right now, whether it's the Russian economy, whether it's the Chinese economy, whether it's the Iranian economy, they don't want that economic stress on their economies. They also know that I think going into a World War which, or at least a regional conflict, would shut off oil transport through both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, which would then collapse the world economy. They don't want do that. I don't think I'm conflating their concern for world welfare. I think they're looking much, much longer. Am I connecting some dots here? Laith Marouf (00:16:04): Yes, yes, you definitely are. And although most of the access of resistance and China, Russia, and most of Africa and Latin America want to see an end to American imperialism, no one wants the whole world to burn in the process. Okay? It's no one's interest to have a World War. People want to clip the wings of the United States, bring it back to its natural size, and the same thing for Europe and balance humanity. There's no interest in these countries to see the United States burn and Europe become a wasteland. And so there's the difference. The difference is people in the south and the East just want the foot of America off their neck. They don't want to put their own foot on America's neck. And so we will see, as we are seeing right now, both in the battlefield in Ukraine, or what's happening around Taiwan or what's happening here right now in the Western Asia battlefield is the constant attempt by the access of resistance and others around the world to take things slow, to allow time to be the biggest weapon. Wilmer Leon (00:17:33): Hence the adage. You have the watches, we have the time. So with all of this, what's next for Iran? Laith Marouf (00:17:43): Yeah, I mean, we already know that they have to have an election within 50 days. That was announced yesterday, and the current vice president was appointed as temporary president until elections happen. Iran as a constitutional democracy will fill these positions as fast as possible, even though these individuals leave a huge gap behind them because of their knowledge and portfolios. abd Ian being the youngest foreign affairs minister of Iran's history, and because of his relations in Africa and Latin America and Rasi with the relationships that he built. So where should expect that this is going to happen this election. But look at one thing, the Israelis, at least what they got from this is at least now a distraction for the next three, five days in Iran and World News while they intensify the massacres in Gaza and in the West Bank last night, for instance, eight people were killed in Janine, so Palestinians. (00:19:06): So there's a lot that we can't really predict what's going to happen. The other thing is that it's very possible that Iran, although they don't announce that this was an assassination and that they don't put the finger on Israel, that they actually conduct clandestine actions that are in kind and something nasty happens to some Israeli official, and nobody can say who it is. So those are possibilities. But I think the most probable thing is that Iran will try to stay the course that the support fronts in Lebanon and Yemen will intensify rapidly to a different level. Wilmer Leon (00:19:49): That's my next question. What happens in the region? Laith Marouf (00:19:53): Yes. Yes. So we're already seeing an intensification even before this assassination. We had a change in the tactics on the Lebanese front with Hezbollah conducting multilayered complex operations that include drones, guided missiles, and achieving huge hits. Much of the air defenses that Israel has downing two huge surveillance balloons. One of them is the biggest in the world, this Zeppelin balloon, there's only two of them in the Zionist colony, one around the Una reactor, one in the north. And the Israelis had put this one in the north because of the destruction of all of their surveillance equipment on the border with Lebanon. So to see Hezbollah not only down these drones, but also film the after from, sorry, not only down these balloons, but also film with surveillance, drones after effect of the destruction and coming back with their images, 100% high HD 4K images of the, so we're already passed into a new stage now in Lebanon, and I expect it to only intensify. And similarly with Yemen, I think that in the next 24 hours, we will see Yemen starting to attack shipping in the Mediterranean, and that will add another sea under Yemeni sovereignty. It's not only going to be the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, you'll have also the Mediterranean, and that will be the smartest thing that Iran can do with the access of resistance is to intensify the battle on these fronts without addressing the issue of the assassination of Raisi. Wilmer Leon (00:21:55): When we look at the recent dynamics, and what I mean by that is if we go back to October 7th, in fact not even that, I'm sorry. What I mean is China gets involved with the Saudis, the Saudis wind up talking to Iran. There's reproach mom between Iran and the Saudis haven't heard much from the Crown Prince Ben Salman. In all of these most recent developments, are there things coming out of Saudi Arabia that are not being reported in the West, particularly now as it relates to the death of former President Raisi? And is Bin Salman concerned about his longevity? Laith Marouf (00:22:54): I think everybody is right now worried about their longevity. We've seen the assassination attempt on the Czech president, so we saw the attempted coup, all of this within 24 hours in Congo. Again, American Israeli mercenaries trying to overthrow the president of La Congo. So we're right now entering a new stage in the global battle, not only in Western Asia, we're seeing the West do the maximum they can with the hybrid war. So it's not only a media war, it's not only a sanctions war, it's not only direct confrontations or military confrontations. We're seeing these assassinations and cos and so on, intensified by the United States and its vessel states. So the Saudis issued an official statement condolences to Iran on the assassination. In fact, all of the Gulf countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Emirate, Oman, Saudi, all of them send their condolences. There is three days of mourning in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in India, and in Tajikistan and in Turkey. And this is things that are unheard of. Maybe it was expected as Syria or Iraq, but Lebanon and Pakistan and Turkey, this is so we can see that the whole region is worried about the results of this assassination. What does it also mean to, what are the rules of the game now? What is allowed to be done? Because if you are allowed to assassinate presidents now, this means there's no rules. Wilmer Leon (00:25:05): Lemme just quickly say to that point, that reminds me of a comment that President Putin made maybe a year ago as people were talking about, oh, is Russia going to assassinate the president of Ukraine? And Putin said, no. He said, no, no, no, we don't do that. So people need to understand that there's a, I hate to use it. There's a decorum, there's a protocol. There are certain things you're not supposed to do even in the rules of war, even in warfare, you don't assassinate the leader of your opposing country. So you are making that comment just made me think about the point that Laith Marouf (00:25:57): By the way, president Putin is on the way right now on the flight to the Harran, and he's flying with escorts of Soho 35 to the Harran, and he will be there tomorrow during the funeral procession led by the Illah. Wilmer Leon (00:26:19): What is that signal? In my mind that's huge because that's huge on a couple of fronts. One, his country is in the midst of a conflict with NATO slash the United States slash the West. So he must feel incredibly comfortable to leave as he did when he went to China in the midst of this conflict. I can leave my country. I'm not concerned about a being assassinated. I'm not concerned about something happening domestically. B, he's flying into a war zone. He's flying into a country whose president was just killed, many believe assassinated. So on a number of fronts, that to me speaks volumes. Laith Marouf (00:27:07): Yes. And there's the ICC arrest warrant Wilmer Leon (00:27:10): Against that too. Laith Marouf (00:27:11): It's the National Criminal Court. So we know that yesterday, the minute the announcement was made that the crash happened, the President Putin called in the ambassador of Iran to Moscow into almost a six hour meeting with all the heads, the intelligence military in foreign affairs of Russia. It was like a special kind of war council almost. And we don't know what happened in this meeting. So what information did Russia share with Iran? What are their points that were made in that meeting? And immediately we see this visit by President Putin being confirmed, and he's flying over the Caspian Sea directly into Iran from Russian territory to Iranian territory with the military escorts. We will clearly that this indicates a lot of things. And he's flying with him the top cater of the Russian military intelligence and foreign affairs to Iran. So there's something that's going to happen there. (00:28:34): We don't know what's the exchange that's going to happen in these meetings. And to go back to the issue of assassinations, the access of resistance members have never assassinated any Israeli leadership. Not because they can't. In fact, the only time that there was any assassination of an Israeli official is the Minister of settlements during the second in the Father in 2002 was conducted by the popular front for the liberation of Palestine in retaliation for the assassination of the leader of the PLFP AB mufa when the Israelis fired missile from a helicopter into his official office. So historically, the axis of resistance does not do assassinations like this. Why? Because number one, and this is true for Russia, by the way, number one, our enemies don't have any heroes. They only got lunatics, stupid leaders. And if you kill them, Wilmer Leon (00:29:42): You martyr them. Laith Marouf (00:29:43): You create the martyrs, right? The Israelis, Wilmer Leon (00:29:48): You inflate them to an artificial sense of value in power. Laith Marouf (00:29:56): Exactly. So there's no need to create martyrs for the Ukrainians or the Israelis. These are all goals. They should never be allowed to reach that status of martyrdom. The second issue, and this is true again for Ukraine, is because we're gifted as an axis of resistance. And Russia is gifted with the stupidest kind of enemy. Why would you want to kill Zelinsky if he's so dumb? Or Netanyahu is making so many stupid mistakes. If you kill them, maybe somebody smarter will come, you'll be even cursed. And in fact, if you look at the Israelis assassinating over and over, leaderships in the axis of resistance, every time they assassinated somebody, somebody even more cunning and more ready to fight them, gets into the position. Look at Hezbollah. Say Hasan came into his position as Secretary General after the assassination by Israel of Del Mu, the former First Secretary General of Hezbollah who was very moderate, soft spoken. And then you get sala and look at what so assassinations don't work on those two grounds. So it's a stupid thing that the Israelis did, this assassination of sei, and it's just going to bring somebody more in power. And now Iran has a president as a martyr on the path of liberation of Palestine. What glory does Iran have? No other nation lost a president in defense of Palestine, not even the Palestinian authority. You see, Wilmer Leon (00:31:49): You're laying out. That logic also goes back to some fundamental organizational constructs, as in organizations that are personality led versus organizations that are structurally led. So what I understand you to be saying is that this resistance is not based upon the personality in charge, that there is a structure here. There is an ideology here that, as we've said a number of times on a number of shows, you can't kill an ideology with a military. You can only defeat an ideology with a better ideology. And so you can assassinate all the leaders you want to, but there are people right behind them that are waiting to take charge. Laith Marouf (00:32:48): Yes, it is institutionalized. Obviously, we don't want to undermine the human factor, like a human factor is very important in all of these things. And people's personalities and connections make a difference. And so yes, these losses are always big, but because of this institutionalization, hopefully the, and because of the actual human factor, this new person that will fill, will bring new openings, new connections with them. Yes, the human factor is very important and institutionalization is as important. Wilmer Leon (00:33:28): Switching gears a bit, the ICC, the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for the leader of Hamas, Yaya Sanir, as well as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity. And it seems to be centered around the October 7th retaliation by Hamas on Israel. President Biden has denounced as outrageous the request for these warrants. Biden has said, let me be clear. Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no evidence none between Israel and Hamas. Biden said that this is a false equivocation. A couple of things. One, people need to understand that the ICC, the prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants. No warrants have been issued yet. I also find it interesting that they are tying all of this back to the October 7th response by the resistance as though October 7th is actually the beginning of something as opposed to the continuation of something. And then I'd like to get your take on, as I understand international law, the actions taken by Hamas on October 7th do not violate international law because Hamas is, Hamas represents the occupied, Israel is the occupier. And in international law, the occupied can do anything in its power to resist occupation. There is no right to defend oneself when you are the occupier. Laith. Maro your thoughts on that analysis? Laith Marouf (00:35:35): Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything that you said, and I would add to it, can you imagine if during the Vietnam War, Vietnam was, and the Vietnamese resistance were taken to the international criminal court and their leadership were declared terrorists for defending themself against French and American occupation, or the Algerian resistance being called terrorists at the ICC for defending themself against the massacres of the French or the French resistance against the Nazis Wilmer Leon (00:36:13): Or the A NC in South Africa Laith Marouf (00:36:15): Or the A NC? So I personally think the collaboration is Palestinian Authority on purpose launched this case at the ICC because they wanted the leadership of the resistance in Hamas to be charged with war crimes. Okay, Wilmer Leon (00:36:43): Wait a minute. Start that again because man, I never saw that one coming. Start that one again, please. Laith Marouf (00:36:52): Yes, yes. I know it's sometimes hard for people to make these connections, but you see there's never been, that's why Wilmer Leon (00:36:58): You're wrong. Connecting the dots. Laith Marouf (00:37:00): Yes. There's never been in history international criminal court case of the occupied taking their occupier into court and the occupied being charged with crimes against their occupier. And it was the Palestinian authority that pursued this case. Okay? And I think it was done on purpose by Abbas Wilmer Leon (00:37:29): Mah. Abba did this Laith Marouf (00:37:31): Mahmud, Abba and his collaborationist goons to dirty the reputation of the resistance to make their resistance equal to the crimes of the occupier. Okay? And I add to it even more the these arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Ganz, who's going to actually enforce them? No Western country will stop Netanyahu from flying over its airspace or landing on its territory, that's for sure, 100%. But you know who's going to be a target? It's a smile Nia, who's sitting in Qatar, right? SSIR and Aldi are in Gaza. The Israelis can't even kill them or assassinate them. They can't reach them, let alone try to arrest them for ICC charges. But smile, Nia, the head of Hamas in foreign political borough is now the number one target. He's probably right now running to find a place that he can hide than Qatar, because Qatar is a vessel state, and they will hand them over to the Americans at any moment. Okay? So in reality, this is one of the worst things that ever happened to the Palestinians. This ICC case, there's nothing to celebrate about it. And if you notice the limitations of this case that it only, as you said, starts October 7th, Wilmer Leon (00:39:03): They don't mention genocide, Laith Marouf (00:39:05): Okay? And not only that, the case is only for crimes inside Ga Gaza, none of the historical Palestine, west Bank, east Jerusalem, any of that will be included in this. And this is not only to protect Israel from accusations of apartheid and the settlement building that is one of the biggest war crimes possible, but also to hide the fact that all these internment camps that have been built since October 7th, were thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were abducted and sent into these Guantanamo and being tortured, raped, and killed on mass, disappeared completely, because nobody even knows that they're in this. And the fact that VE turned all the Israeli prisons into that same model, 12,000 Palestinian prisoners since October 7th, have been living in these internment camps, tortured, raped, and killed with hundreds, hundreds of testimonies of rape and torture by men, women, and children coming out of these dungeons. And if you notice the docket of these requests for arrest warrants, this house, slave Han, who is a puppet of the United States and Israel, who came as a replacement to the ICC chief prosecutor before him, who got humiliated and death threats and banned from entering the United States and so on, because she even dare thought about charges Wilmer Leon (00:40:56): Even his family was under. Yes, Laith Marouf (00:40:58): Yes. So now, what does this guy do? If you look at the charges when he's talking about Hamas crimes, he speaks of them as if they're facts that rapes happen. We have no, Wilmer Leon (00:41:17): No evidence Laith Marouf (00:41:18): Any rape that babies were killed. No evidence, no evidence killed. But when he talks about the crimes of the Zionist, Wilmer Leon (00:41:27): He uses a minute, just to that point, going back to President Putin, I remember him saying, if you have evidence of these crimes, please show the world. He was very emphatic on that point. You have made these allegations. If you have evidence, please show the world. And no matter how many times Joe Biden, no matter how many times Tony Blinken wants to talk about these atrocities, they've never even pierce Morgan. I know you saw the interview with Dr. Morandi and Pi Morgan, where Morandi just cut him a new one. He said, Pierce, where's the evidence? And Pi Morgan just kept chatting, just kept chirping. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Laith Marouf (00:42:30): Yes, yes. I mean, the evidence is like you have to take the word of the chosen people for fact. What are you antisemitic, Wilmer. You don't believe every word that comes out of a chosen person mouth. I mean, that's it. That's all evidence you need. So Wilmer Leon (00:42:48): If I was antisemitic, I wouldn't be talking to you. Laith Marouf (00:42:50): Exactly. Exactly. But we're joking about it. But truly, this guy, this sock puppet had, he went down to Israel after October 7th and sat down with the families and unquote survivors, and visited the colonies that were attacked, but refused to enter Gaza Amass, opened the door for him, invited him to come and see Joe evidence, the war crimes. He refused to go to Gaza, okay? And then now he's coming and he's writing in his docket that these crimes happened by Hamas. But when he's talking about the crimes accusations against Israel, he says reasonable grounds before every accusation he is already, you could see how tainted this case is and what is its ultimate goal. I mean, yesterday, the spokesperson for the American government, I can't remember his name, the thin white guy. He was being interviewed, sorry, asked in the question period about this issue, and the guy claimed that the Palestinians have no right to go to the ICC and that their only courts that have jurisdiction are Israeli or American courts. He wants the Palestinians to come and beg at American courts, which even shows you how Israel is a colony, a vessel of the United States. But yes, this is where Wilmer Leon (00:44:32): Matthew Miller, Laith Marouf (00:44:35): Yes, Matthew Pillar, and people call him Matthew Killer. Yes, Wilmer Leon (00:44:38): Right. Matthew Miller. Laith Marouf (00:44:39): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wilmer Leon (00:44:42): So I'm sorry, I interrupted you. You're saying he was saying that they need to come to American courts? Laith Marouf (00:44:47): Yes. That they have no right to go to the ICC, and the only place that has jurisdiction is the US or Israel over crimes in Gaza, Wilmer Leon (00:45:00): Which is also very telling in that the United States is not as signatory to the ICC, but seems to want to either use it when it's convenient or condemn it when it's convenient. But in fact, excuse me, there's a standing American law, and people can look this up, that if an American is brought before the Hague, the United States reserves the right to invade it. I might even be called the Hague Invasion Act. I'm drawing a blank on the name, but people, folks, you need to look this up. The United States has a standing American law saying, we will invade the Hague if an American is arrested and held accountable for crime. Laith Marouf (00:45:59): Yes, it's ally known as the Hague Invasion Act. And in fact, if you look at the ICC record, 42 out of the 42 people that were convicted of crimes at the ICC were African African leaders, and then add to it that the charges against President Putin. So this ICC is the most captured, un affiliated organism captured by the West, along with the International Atomic Energy Organization and the Chemical and Weapons Organization. These are the least trusted three organs of the un. And we're seeing, I believe these indictments, or if there is an arrest warrant issued, I mean, I don't see anything good coming to the Palestinians from this. Wilmer Leon (00:47:08): Wow. That's a perspective and a level of analysis that I did not see coming. But what you're saying makes sense. Bring us up to date, please on what's happening in Rafa. According to the new Arab, there are by 1.4 million Palestinians there. And that around the 7th of May, they were told that they had to leave. And the number I see is about 80,000 people have fled, but there's, I guess a slow boiling Israeli incursion into the area. What's going on in Rafa now? Laith Marouf (00:48:02): Yeah, I mean, the Israelis are doing what they call belts, fire belts. It's like bombardment from the land, from the sea, from the air on straight lines, and then going next straight line and so on. This is what they've been doing since last week. They haven't yet attempted invading Rafa. They have been stuck in Jabal since last week in the longest and fiercest battle on the ground of Gaza since the beginning of the war. The Israelis lost, according to their own media, at least 10 officers there. That includes a field general, the highest ranking military officer on the field of any army, and along with all his commanders. So we've seen the videos come out from this Jabali battle every day, two or three videos coming out from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others that showed us tens of Israeli tanks destroyed APCs and bulldozers. So they're receiving a beating, a whipping in the battlefield of Jabal. (00:49:21): So I don't think they're going to invade RA anytime soon. They'll continue bombing from the air. But this has also happened at the same time as yesterday or the day before the Americans finished building the pier, right? Right. And we already now have images of this spear with American air defenses, radars and tanks and ABCs waiting in the landing ships. So clearly the sphere is not about delivering any aid, and it's definitely not about the mass expulsion of Palestinians. This is an invasion, beachfront landing zone in the case of total collapse of the Israeli military on the battlefield. And that's what we are seeing right now happening. Wilmer Leon (00:50:11): And is it a coincidence or should we connect dots that the pier was completed right around the same time that it was announced that, what was it, 1.2 billion more of weaponry has been approved. And so is that a coincidence or am I wrong to connect these dots? Laith Marouf (00:50:34): No, it's not a coincidence. It's also not a coincidence that it was finished the day they assassinated rasi. You see, all of these are time things. It's same thing. It's not a coincidence that the sock puppet Han announced the ICC arrest warrants at the same day of the assassination. So all of this is clearly timed together, and we now saw in the last 48 hours, the cards of the West put on the table, have opened. Now their hand, they just opened their hand with these three moves. The Wilmer Leon (00:51:15): But wait a minute, president Biden is calling for a ceasefire. How can this be true? Laith Maro, when President Biden, when he was at Morehouse giving his commencement address, he's calling for a cease fire. Help me understand this, because obviously you didn't hear him. And so now that you understand, Joe Biden wants to cease fire, how can everything that you've just said be true? Laith Marouf (00:51:44): Isn't it one of the most disgusting things that Biden could do is to lie to the black students and the administration of the university say that he will not use their black faces in his promotional materials for his election? That was one of the conditions to allow him to speak to the students who were going to demonstrate. But because their administration found a middle ground and told them, okay, you can demonstrate without, Wilmer Leon (00:52:15): Don't make any noise, shut Laith Marouf (00:52:16): Down, don't make any noise, and so on. And this guy is not going to use your faces for his election. And now he goes around and immediately, immediately releases a promotional video of using these students to try to get sympathy from the black communities in America. This is, and obviously anybody that believes American leaders should go and ask the indigenous people about all the treaties and their promises. I mean, there's 400 years of record of broken promises and broken treaties. There's not one treaty I think the United States ever abided by with anyone. Have Wilmer Leon (00:53:04): You seen this Washington Post article from last week? The Washington Post reported about a WhatsApp chat stream where New York mayor Eric Adams was chatting with a number of American multimillion and billionaires, such as the former founder of Starbucks and the CEO of Dell and a number of other financiers where they were demanding that Eric Adams send the NYPD into Columbia University. They offered campaign contributions, they offered to fund private investigators to look into the students. And he is now, of course, denying that this took place. But the Washington Post has the transcript of the WhatsApp communications, and they named these individuals by name. And it seems as though their whole concern or motivation behind this is they're losing control of the narrative. Your thoughts, lath maus. Laith Marouf (00:54:21): Yeah. I mean, it's 100% a fact that this happened. No matter what the mayor says, who was another sock puppet? And if me and you have enough money, we can buy American politicians if we want to. They're very cheap. They'll sell you their mamas if you have enough money. Okay? So it's not a surprise. It's actually great that it got leaked, and I'm sure the Washington Post only published it because it was going to be all around the internet anyways, and they needed to have a scoop to stay on top of the story. But this is the truth. The political class and the economic elite are abusing the police in the United States, abusing the power they have over the police, forcing the police to become political police, to suppress the students and the communities that are demonstrating for the liberation of Palestine. I mean, I watched these images over the weekend. The beatings that the NYPD was giving to these youth was, I mean, very similar to who Wilmer Leon (00:55:36): Were peacefully protesting, Laith Marouf (00:55:37): Peacefully protesting, being jumped and taken to the ground and punching women in the face while having your legs on their necks. I mean, it is very similar to how they treat on a daily basis, the black community, specifically black men. But now we're seeing it on a daily scale of people not being accused of any crime or just speaking out or demonstrating. And that's what was happening to the black community in the sixties and the seventies and or the Black Lives Matter movement during the Obama years. Now we are gearing up to this summer of discontent all across the west as these youth finished their exams in the universities and pour into the streets. And we should expect maximum suppression from the political class, and they will be abusing the police to do so because they can't use the courts. Look, in Canada, there's been now two court cases where Zionist students went to court to try to force the police to remove a student encampment from McGill University in Montreal. (00:57:01): McGill University is the Ivy League University in Canada, and they lost. The judge said, no, the students have a right. And then the university administration itself appealed and went to the court to also asked the court to tell the police to remove the students. And again, the court said no. And therefore, this is what's happening. The Zionists in Canada were stupid enough to think that they can win this in court. They thought like, oh, we have all the media, we have all the politicians. We can rip apart the Bill of Rights in Canada. But the Zionists in the United States are a little bit smarter. They know that if they go to court First Amendment, they cannot remove these students. Therefore, they skipped all the legal process and went immediately into abusing their access to power by moving the police, setting them like dogs on the students. Wilmer Leon (00:58:03): Laith Maro, my brother. As always, I got to thank you for joining me today. And let me reiterate to folks that they need to go to Free Palestine video. Go to Free Palestine video. You can see if you could quickly just explain to the audience what you're doing there on the ground, real time in Beirut with free Palestine video. Laith Marouf (00:58:33): So yeah, as a volunteer community television, we're teaching youth and students to produce content in English. We're also doing everyday almost reporting from the south of Lebanon, from the Warfront exclusive coverage of what's happening there, interviews of people on the ground. And we're doing weekly episode of a special show called Wartime Cafe with the biggest intellectual and political leaders in Lebanon in English. Last time, the last episode of wartime Cafe was with Ibrahim Al Mu, who is a member of Parliament, but also the former spokesperson for Hezbollah. He hasn't spoken in English media for a long time. So this is the kind of content that you will get. Please support us donations. We need membership. If there's possible, so people subscribe for monthly donation, that will be amazing. And you can add on our website, free pass. Send the video. You have the links to all our socials, so Twitter, telegram, Instagram, YouTube, brumble. Please watch the content and help us through donations. Wilmer Leon (00:59:49): My brother, my dear brother, lathe Maru, thank you so much for joining me today. Laith Marouf (00:59:54): Thank you for having me. Wilmer Leon (00:59:56): Look forward to having you back. Folks. Thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wimer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Please leave a review, share the show, and you can follow us on social media. You'll find all the links below to the show description, contribute to this effort if you can. Nothing is too small and we know nothing is too large. We greatly, greatly appreciate the contributions that are helping to keep this program on the air. Remember, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (01:00:59): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

pWotD Episode 2513: Nowruz Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.With 996,028 views on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 our article of the day is Nowruz.Nowruz (Persian: نوروز [noːˈɾuːz]) is the Iranian or Persian New Year celebrated by various ethnic groups worldwide. It is a festival based on the spring equinox— which marks the first day of the new year in the Iranian Solar Hijri calendar, on or around 21 March on the Gregorian calendar.The day of Nowruz has its origins in the Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism and is thus rooted in the traditions of the Iranian peoples; however, it has been celebrated by diverse communities for over 3,000 years in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans, and South Asia. Presently, while it is largely a secular holiday for most celebrants and enjoyed by people of several different faiths and backgrounds, Nowruz remains a holy day for Zoroastrians, Baháʼís, and some Muslim communities. As the spring equinox, Nowruz marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, i.e. the moment at which the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year. Traditional customs of Nowruz include fire and water, ritual dances, gift exchanges, reciting poetry, symbolic objects and more; these customs differ between the diverse peoples and countries that celebrate the festival.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:30 UTC on Wednesday, 20 March 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Nowruz on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Kajal Neural.

"Nobody thought the conflict in Ukraine would last this long," states Scott Ritter, a former Marine intelligence officer and weapons inspector, as the second anniversary of Russia's special military operation is reached. Ritter predicts that the conflict will end within the year, but there are no positive outcomes. He warns that Ukraine will cease to exist, NATO will disband or alter fundamentally and the risk of nuclear war is high. Ritter also discusses the resignation of Victoria Nuland, revelations from the leaked conversation by German military officers and how the façade of US military dominance has been shattered by events in Ukraine and Western Asia. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

Find me and the show on social media @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd TRANSCRIPT: Announcer (00:06): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Drt Wilmer Leon (00:13): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. And I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which they occur. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events in the broader historic context in which they occur. This enables you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. The issue before us is the ongoing struggle for freedom and self-determination in occupied historic Palestine. And my guest is the award-winning journalist, broadcaster and political analyst who's based in Beirut, Lebanon, Laith Maru, as always, my brother. Welcome back. Laith Mafour (01:12): Thank you for having me. I was a pleasure to be with you. Drt Wilmer Leon (01:15): So let's start with the occurrence on Sunday, February 25th, where a 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force, Aaron Bushnell, emulated himself outside the Israeli embassy in the US capitol of Washington dc This was a one airman revolt against the US backed genocide currently being perpetuated by Israel in the Gaza Strip. He has died from his injuries. Your thoughts Laith on the resonance. What's the resonance of this action in the region? Laith Mafour (02:00): Well, first off, I would like to send my condolences to the family of Aaron and to all American soldiers that are thinking about the consequences of the orders that they're receiving from the depraved leadership in the United States. Aaron right now has become a symbol in the region here he's called the Martyr by the people in the streets. If you look at the social media discussions that have arisen since his emulation and sacrifice for peace in Palestine, you could see so much art being produced right now with the visual of him on fire. And what does this mean for people of consciousness? (03:02) I think right now the region was looking to see if there anybody in the west that will stand up against their violence of their governments and their participation in this genocide. And we saw finally now a human face to the American populace that they are not in alignment with the genocide being perpetuated in their name. Everybody here watched, of course, the live broadcast, the recording of that live broadcast that Aaron did. And there is now a clear just positioning between the selfless act that Aaron took and the security police that were holding a gun at him as he was burning alive. And this of course symbolizes on the one hand how the state and the police in the USA, how they respond to acts of sympathy and solidarity in general. And those images I think have entered now are human collective consciousness and it'll not be forgotten. It's the same as the images of the Buddhist monks that burned themselves during the Vietnam War. And of course American citizens that did the same during the Vietnam War that now are remembered as heroes of human consciousness. Aaron, while he's being attacked and by the Zionist right now after his martyrdom and by the American establishment and media after his martyrdom, he will be remembered 30 years from now by the American people as an icon of American humanism. Drt Wilmer Leon (05:16): Lathe, I appreciate you connecting the dots with the burning monk from 1963 because that's what exactly what I thought about when I saw the video. And for those that don't know, back in June 11th, I think it was 1963, there was a Vietnamese monk named thick Kwang Duk who a Buddhist monk who protested against the persecution of Buddhists in South Vietnam by the government of President dm. And some of the dots that I connected were that Vietnam was a failed French colony as occupied is a failed colony. And in both cases, connecting the dots here, the United States stepped in to try to save the genocidal colonies. And then this also made me think about France Fanon and his book Dying Colonialism, where he talks about the impact that this oppression has on the colonized and that once they finally come to grips with their oppression and how they must resist their oppression, they can't be stopped. And so errands, Aaron Bushnell's martyrdom from all the way across in the United States to me, shows not only the residents within Palestine, but what's happening around the world. Laith Mafour (06:47): Yes, definitely. Look, colonizers that are in Palestine right now are being emboldened by the support of the Western regimes. We see them filming themself committing war crimes and distributing it on social media because they believe that nobody will ever hold them responsible. And so to look at the demonstrations that are happening in the west and how it's been going on for five months now, almost these demonstrations and that they have either been ignored by western media and or have been repressed by the authorities in the West, we see, for instance, last week students, underage students coming out from high schools in New York and getting beaten up and arrested. We see the same happening in Italy where underage high school students walked out to end the war in Palestine. And again, they got beaten and arrested by the police in Italy. And so the population itself in the west who have awakened, who who've seen the same images that we all saw on this planet are reaching now a moment of realization that their own elite governments will refuse to represent them, refuse to listen to them. (08:35) And this is why an action like Aaron's action of his martyrdom is going to be considered a turning point in this movement in the west. Now, he forced a discussion on the media that has been silencing the population for so long, and now more and more of the populace that are out in the streets will be willing to take more direct action. I say this because what Aaron did, maybe we don't need everybody to obviously emulate themselves, but it is the responsibility of specifically white people in the West to put their life at risk to end the genocide that is being committed in their name. And I would say this responsibility is even heavier on Jewish white people in the West. We've been seeing Jewish voices for peace or independent Jewish voices, all these organizations that are anti-Zionists doing regular demonstrations, blocking central square, whatever, a train station or going into a museum or what have you. (10:10) These are all ineffective actions, number one. Number two, they fall way below the threshold of the responsibility of Jewish white people. Jewish white people have to put their life at risk and occupy apac, occupy the synagogues that are pitching hate from the pulpits and free Judaism from Zionists. This may mean they will go to jail. This may mean they're going to get beaten up by the police, but that's the least they can do. This is not the responsibility of a Palestinian Arab or Muslim American or even a black American where all these, our communities are already suffering from the repression of the states. Our communities are already counting their martyrs in Palestine and Congo and Sudan and Haiti. So if are viewers here that are Jewish, that are anti-Zionists or white that are anti-Zionists, you should take the lead of Aaron. And it doesn't mean that you need to emulate yourself, but you do have a responsibility to put your life at risk in order to be not sculpted in the genocide. Drt Wilmer Leon (11:49): To that point, what message gets sent when an African-American woman like US ambassador to the un, Linda Thomas Greenfield cast the vote against the peace settlement in the UN or US vice president, African-American woman, Kamala Harris, goes to Kom trying to pitch the US invasion of Haiti. Or you have members of the Congressional Black Caucus that are engaged that are coming to Israel on behalf of apac people like Congressman Gregory Meeks and some of the others. What signals are being sent? How is that being perceived in Lebanon? How is that being perceived in the region? Laith Mafour (12:41): You mentioned, what's his name? Drt Wilmer Leon (12:45): Gregory Meeks? Laith Mafour (12:46): No, the wretched of the Earth. Drt Wilmer Leon (12:48): Oh. Laith Mafour (12:50): And he obviously spoke to us about black faces with white masks. And this is what people see with the American ambassador of the United Nations. I mean, people are calling her Aunt Jamima, so she's selling the white flower on behalf of the elite. And so Drt Wilmer Leon (13:18): I wrote a piece where I called it minstrel diplomacy. It's black faces on white supremacy. Laith Mafour (13:26): Exactly. And this is what the west has been trying to do for the last 20 years with the bringing of Obama into power to give a black face to American imperialism and colonialism and destruction of seven countries under Obama. Of course, that never benefited anybody who's black or African in origin, nothing that came out of Obama helped the African-American communities. We watch this and I think the propaganda machine is collapsing of the West because there's nobody now that can be tricked the same way that people were tricked in 2008 to elect Obama. In fact, we see the Palestinian Arab Muslim communities in Michigan, for instance, saying that they will vote against Biden no matter what they want to punish him. So even trying to scare these oppressed communities in the US to vote Biden so Trump doesn't get elected, well, they don't care anymore. They all know these communities that it doesn't matter whether it's Democrat or Republican that's going to be in charge in the White House. (14:49) They love to spill Arab blood and Muslim blood, and they will continue in their genocide of the Sian people. People are not going to vote for Biden, not because they think Trump is going to do better. They actually know that he is going to do the same, but they will refuse to be pawns in this duality of theatrics that is called American democracy. And I think the looking at the African-American community, they're also coming, many of them are coming to this realization also. And we saw the churches in the us, the black churches taking position for ceasefire and what have you. Drt Wilmer Leon (15:40): And that's a great, great, great point. There's another story that's in the Washington Post, Hamas leader hiding in Gaza, but killing him, risks hostages. Israeli officials say that they're closing in on yay the accused architect of the October 7th resistance, and they're questioning whether his death will help in the war. They say that that's up for debate and that he's hiding in this labyrinth of tunnels surrounded by Israeli hostages. And there's all this debate and discussion going on. How is this, what's the story there coming out of Lebanon as it relates to S, and hopefully I pronounced it correctly? Laith Mafour (16:34): Yeah, I mean, look, the Israeli propaganda has been flip-flopping for the last month about the whereabout of noir. For a while, they were telling us that he escaped through tunnels to Egypt, and he's hiding in Egypt while his people are being slaughtered by Israel. Now we're being told, no, no, no, he's actually underground. And he's not only using Palestinians as shields, he's also using Israeli POWs as his human shields. So the propaganda of Israel can't decide what it wants. It throws everything possible, every lie possible to catch the audience. We keep on hearing that Israel is that once the representative of Western civilization and that the attack on Israel is an attack on the West, and at the same time we're being told that Israelis are somehow indigenous to Palestine. So they can't make up their mind, and they will throw every possible propaganda point out there, and hopefully one of them will stick with some of the audience, and that's what they continue to do. So go ahead. Drt Wilmer Leon (17:51): Well, what about the subtle or not so subtle message that comes from stories like this one man versus the movement that in this Washington Post article, it says that the actions by the IDF cannot stop until he's captured as though capturing one man is going to have a dramatic impact on an entire movement. And from what I can discern, this whole one man versus the movement thing that left the station 75 years ago, Laith Maru. Laith Mafour (18:36): Oh yes. And the Israelis have periodically assassinated leaders of Palestinian resistance. Even just a few months ago here, the representative of Hamas in Beirut was assassinated through missiles in Al Southern suburb of Beirut. And Hamas still goes on similarly with Islamic shihad, similarly before them feta and the PLFP. I mean, look, the quest for liberation and the idea of liberation, you can't assassinate that, number one. And as we see Palestinians over the 75 years have built their structures of their organizations and the knowledge sharing and in ways that it doesn't matter if you assassinate one person, there's another 10 people behind them that have the same skills, have and have the same positionality, and they continue on. Of course, this is not to underestimate the human factor. I speak differently than somebody else. People like me differently than they like somebody else. And yes, sometimes assassinations of of resistance can have a deterrence, but not in the situation of Palestine. (20:05) Palestine right now in itself is the symbol. And every Palestinian that is born knows how many of their families have been killed and raped and expelled. And why Israel? And this is enough fire to keep this struggle going till the end of this Zionist colony. And this is what is happening right now. We are witnessing the end days of the Zionist colony, and it's a bloody affair. It's going to be a bloody affair because the Zionists themselves and those who are behind them in the West are refusing the solution of South Africa. And they're also refusing the solution that aladin, as you'd call him in English, gave to the crusaders. So we will see a fight to the last man and it's going to be bloody. We're coming now to an end of the first stage, the direct war inside Gaza. We're now at the doors of the second stage, which is a wider war in the region that includes all the non-state actors, Hezbollah law, Iraq, and Syria resistance versus the United States and Israel. And this next second stage will last to four to five months. And as we get closer to the American election, we could be seeing a direct war between Iran and the United States. Drt Wilmer Leon (21:45): Hassan Nara, the head of Hezbollah, he said in a speech, I want to say it was last week, that this issue now has become bigger than just the Palestinians, that this is now a regional issue. And I interpreted that as kind of a clarion call, all adults in the pool. Now everybody's got to be in. Some people, I believe misinterpreted that as his kind of dismissing the Palestinian discussion, but I interpreted that as his saying. No, no, no. That's still at the heart of this struggle. But he's calling on everybody again, all adults in the pool. Your thoughts. Laith Mafour (22:32): Yeah, I mean, look at what's happening in Yemen on a daily basis. The bombings by the us, the UK on Yemen, on the capitol, on the had port, and the daily attacks by the Yemeni armed forces on American, British, and Israeli shipping boats and on the American and British Navy. So we've reached now the United States itself is admitting that they are now embroiled in the largest and most sophisticated naval battles since World War ii. This is not anymore just to confine to Palestine and the repercussions of this war. And as it rolls out even further, before it even opens up fully as a regional battle, we are already seeing historical things that have been set for 600 years. For instance, the naval supremacy of Europe and the United States and control of all waterways that has been now demolished by Yemen before we even got into a full war. It's done in 600 years of history thrown into the garbage, and now we're entering a new era in naval history and control and battle mechanisms and what have you. Similarly, as we now roll into a full war between Lebanon and Israel, we are going to see an end of air supremacy of the West, and we'll discuss that more as we go on with this hour. Drt Wilmer Leon (24:36): You mentioned just a couple of minutes ago about the end of the colony, and there are those who will argue, and I think this is a very valid point, that one of the reasons why the United States is backing the Zionist colony to the degree that it is, is because the West truly understands that the end of Zionist colonialism and occupied Palestine will bring about the end of colonialism itself, whether it's in Niger, in Congo, we pick a colony that this is the linchpin that as goes Israel, so goes the rest of colonization. Is that hyperbole or as we look at what transpired in Vietnam, as Dr. King said, the moral arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. Laith Mafour (25:35): Yeah. Look, to make it easier for some of our viewers to understand what's the historical moment that we are living. At the end of the Soviet Union, collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States went into a stage of expansion, rapid expansion of its imperial borders, and try to swallow every state that escaped the colonial era after World War ii. And so Somalia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, blah, blah, blah, tens of states, Granada, all of those that got swallowed in by American imperialism. And this stage of expansion reached its furthest point with the capture of Ukraine and the war in Syria. So the fact that the United States lost the war in Syria, that was the furthest point of expansion of American imperial borders, taking one third of Syria and being defeated there. The war in Ukraine was the beginning of the stage of shrinking of the imperial borders, the Russia liberating east and South Ukraine, that meant the United States borders, imperial borders retracted. (27:01) And today the war in Palestine, if Palestine is liberated and it will be liberated, I don't know at what cost humanly it'll be, but it'll be liberated. When the Palestine is liberated, it will force the United States to retreat to its natural borders. Okay? Palestine is the point of projection of power of the United States as an empire into all of Western Asia and into all of East and North Africa. And if the United States loses this base, it is forced to retreat to its natural borders, and that means an end of American imperial era. And this is why we see the United States fighting full force to maintain the Zionist colony because they know the outcomes of it will lead to the liberation of Palestine will lead to that all of Africa and Asia escapes its grip, and we will see revolutionary movements mushrooming across that continent. We already see how the West lost the Sahel countries, Maui, Burkina Faso and what have you that are entering into a federation Now. We're going to have a central African Federation of States that's going to encompass huge amounts of land resources and people that will rise into becoming a pole inside Africa. This is going to be just the beginning of the end of imperialism. Drt Wilmer Leon (28:39): There's another story. This came through Almadi English, Hezbollah Downs, Israeli Aires four 50 drone over South Lebanon. The Islamic resistance announced that its fighters successfully shot down a large air maze, Israeli drone, violating Lebanese airspace over the town of I TFA in South Lebanon using a surface to air missile. Again, hopefully I got that pronunciation somewhat close to reality. And they said that the downing of the drone could be seen with the naked eye. What is the significance of Hezbollah being able to down a drone, an Israeli drone of this type? Laith Mafour (29:28): This is the most advanced Israeli drone. It is the jewel on their crown of drone production. It costs them, I don't know, almost $2 million to produce one of them. And the Lebanese resistance shooting it down over the central part of Lebanon showed that the first off, they have the air defenses that can track this supposed stealth drone. And by the way, the Israelis had to shoot two missiles from what they call David's Lynch, or what do you call it? The swing sling Sling. David Sling, okay. It's such a blasphemous thing to name a weapon of war used in genocide in the name of our prophet David. So they used their most advanced air defenses to try to shoot down the anti-air missile from Hezbollah. They shot it from inside Palestine, probably stationed around 70 kilometers inside the occupied Palestine, so it doesn't get targeted by Hezbollah missile and shot it over Lebanon to try to stop these Lebanese air defense missiles that were trying to shoot the drone and they missed them. (30:59) And so the drone was shot down, and within an hour or so, the Israelis started bombarding the area where the drone fell, including bba, the historical city in the RA valley in central Lebanon, a hundred kilometers away from the borders of Palestine. And they hit two different farms. They claimed that they were trying to target the air defenses of Hezbollah. And in retaliation, Hezbollah actually rained missiles and drones on an Israeli colony on the border of the West Bank, a hundred kilometers into occupied Palestine. And since the morning have bombarded the Maron airb base on top of Alger Mountain in north the Galilee, and the main control and command base of the Israeli military in the Gola and heights, hundreds of missiles since the morning. So we've now entered clearly a new stage. The Hezbollah has began showing some of its advanced weapons that up until now, it's been keeping for the right moment. And there's going to be much more surprises as this war breaks out on a full scale, but a hundred kilometers inside Palestine and a hundred kilometers inside Lebanon. That means both parties are willing and ready to hit their capitals. Tel Aviv and Lebanon. Beirut are at any moment could be the targets of these attacks. Drt Wilmer Leon (33:00): In fact, elaborate on that a little bit because it was, Laith Mafour (33:08): Sorry about that. Drt Wilmer Leon (33:10): It was a couple of weeks ago that Iran sent a missile into Pakistan. And the distance that missile traveled, as I understand it, was around 800 or 900 miles, and it struck its target. There are those who said then that that was as much of a message to the United States and to the west, that they could strike Tel Aviv because the distance between the two was about the same. And so now you've got the shooting down of this Israeli drone. You have Ansara Allah in Yemen that they're using, relatively speaking, very cheap missiles, something like $2,000 of missile to impact the global maritime trade through the Red Sea. The whole dynamic in the region has changed since the last Israeli Lebanese war. And if Israel couldn't beat Lebanon, then I don't know how they think they can do anything. Now, am I right to connect those dots? Laith Mafour (34:29): Oh, yes. Oh yes. And look, even Yemen, up until now, we were told by the commander of the American Navy in the region Central command in interviews to American media that not only is this the largest naval battle since World War II that the US is involved in, but this is also now the first time in history that a ballistic missiles are used to hit moving naval targets. So this is a huge advancement for Yemen, and it shows how greatly trained these Yemeni soldiers are. And they're using ballistic missiles. They're using cruise missiles. They're using drones and naval drones and submarine drones to hit American Navy ships, British navy ships and nobody can stop them. In fact, the Yemenis themselves shot down an MQ nine drone just last week, which is the most advanced American drone. It costs tens of millions of dollars. And then they also captured the most advanced American submarine drone, captured it as a whole Yemenis, and they brought it up to the beach, and they're going to hand it over to Iran and Russia who are going to reverse engineer it. And so Yemen in itself, we should not underestimate their capabilities. And I tell you, if this war breaks out in full, I think up until now, the Yemeni forces have been restraining themselves on purpose, not sinking fully American destroyers or aircraft carriers. But if we have a full war with Lebanon here, I bet you that Yemen will definitely be sinking American Navy ships. Drt Wilmer Leon (36:41): Help me with the history here. I think I've got a fairly rough understanding when we hear the name an Allah, I believe that that roughly translates into helpers of God and that the history is that as the prophet may peace be upon him, was going from Mecca to Medina. He went through Yemen and was assisted in his travels, was defended and supported in his travels by those who from that assistance called themselves the helpers of God. And so to me, going back to Fanan, this goes to the mindset of the individuals that you're engaging in. And so if folks have this mindset, this belief that they are truly helpers of God, you're dealing with an enemy unlike the American forces, who in many instances are in it for a job. This is one reason why these folks have been as the fierce fighters that they've been for the centuries that they've been. Again, is that hyperbole or am I connecting some dots here? Laith Mafour (38:03): No, you're connecting a lot of important dots. Anah means people in solidarity kind of so those who are in solidarity with God and the Yemeni people have a long history that much of you in the West don't know, but they are the original Arabs. The marriage between the Tite tribes and the Canaanite tribes is what gave us what we know as the Arabic people. It is one of the oldest civilization on this planet, queen Sheba and what have you. These are very faithful people that are very tough and humble at the same time, they were the first outside CCA to become Muslim and support the prophet Muhammad and stand in solidarity with him. And of course, they were known as some of the best seafarers in the world. They would travel from Yemen all the way to the Philippines and Indonesia and all the way down to Madagascar and Mozambique, and through their trade and good behavior and spread Islam and spread Islam without any fights. (39:38) You couldn't say that they've ever forced anybody to Islam Yemenis. In fact, they're good deeds and they're good behavior. It's what spread Islam to the most populist Muslim country in the world, Indonesia and so forth. So the way that the West wanted to replace this honorable Arab that is symbolized by the Ani, by the oil sheikhs, the gluttonous oil shakes that the West created as the archetype of Arabs today, the Yei people with their outwardly behavior and stance to the world rebirthed, the honorable Arab to the world, and have frustrated this a hundred year propaganda machine that made the Arab into this filthy oil shakes that are hungry for prostitution and spending money. Drt Wilmer Leon (40:44): The Washington Post has reported that as ceasefire talks continue in Qatar, that the Palestinian Authority President has accepted cabinet resignations, president mah mud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority. He has accepted the resignation of his prime Minister and of his cabinet, and they put this in the context of new, what they call political arrangements that are necessary to achieve Palestinian consensus. And I interpret this as really being a total misrepresentation of reality because as I understand it, particularly relative to this conflict, MABAS has almost no impact, has no control. The Palestinians don't trust him. And so he really seems to be operating as an emissary for the West as opposed to really being able to have any impact on the outcome of this conflict. Laith Mafour (41:57): Yeah, I mean, they're trying to create a Palestinian leadership before the war is even over. And of course, it's not going to go anywhere. The Palestinian groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLFP, all others other than feta have been constantly calling for a unity government for a representation at the Palestinian Liberation Organization for a disillusion of the Palestinian authority. And UD Abba as a good house slave is refusing all of these. And in fact, we heard them over the last few attacking the resistance in Gaza saying that they're kind of to blame for the deaths, repeating the racist words of his masters in Tel Aviv and dc. So he's irrelevant. And his government, whether they resign or not, I mean, what are they doing really? There's nothing that his government is doing except collaborating with the colonizer with a Zionist. And right now we can see that, for instance, Russia is trying to bring together the Palestinian factions. They've been invited to Moscow, the Fatma and Islamic Jihad. We'll see what happens there. That's a more logical path to creating a national government for the Palestinians than what the West is trying to do, which is irrelevant really. Drt Wilmer Leon (43:44): So it sounds as though in terms of what's being promoted through the Western media as in the Washington Post, that by going through the path of Mahmood Abbas, the United States to a great degree, is really negotiating with itself. And that because they don't have in the, they make it appear through their descriptions that they have the major players in the room. And I think I read today that a ceasefire is on the horizon. Laith Mafour (44:20): You put your finger on the right button there. You see, they've been saying that there's going to be a ceasefire yesterday. Biden is like, oh, we're going to have a ceasefire over the weekend. And Hamas is like, what are you talking about? We haven't got received anything. Who are you talking with? And this is what it is. There's a circle that's without using that awful word that you do it of Jordanian, Egyptian, Turkish Qari, American and Israelis, and they're all, so they're wishful thinking, but there's so much under so pressure that they're coming out. They're pressure Drt Wilmer Leon (45:01): From who, pressure from whom they're under so much who's under the pressure and under pressure from who Laith Mafour (45:06): They're under pressure from their own populace. They're under who's they? The west elite, the western elite, and the elite in Jordan, Egypt, qar and what have you. They're all under a lot of pressure. So they have to keep on pretending that there is on the one hand a ceasefire possibility and on the other that they can achieve it. Of course, the Palestinians are not going to surrender in Gaza, and the Israelis and the Americans are going to have to either end this war with a defeat and or actually continue to a larger war that's going to have a bigger genocide happening. Drt Wilmer Leon (45:57): There are reports that Danish pension funds are divesting from Israeli banks and companies that financial institutions across Denmark, they're facing new increased pressure from the Danish public to withdraw their investments. This is coming from the new Arab to withdraw their investments from Israel as demonstrations continue for the fourth month running in protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. What I see here now manifesting itself in Denmark, I connecting the dots to what transpired in South Africa with the Western move to divest pension funds and other interests from those doing business in South Africa. Are you seeing similarities here? And as we talk about the BDS movement, it seems now to be gaining a lot more traction. Speak to that, please. Laith Mafour (47:06): Yeah, this is one amongst many, obviously it's a huge success to have this withdrawal of all investments. We saw Spain stopped the sale and transfer of weapons to Israel. We saw Japanese arms companies cutting their contracts with arms manufacturers, and this will continue, hopefully, but look at the difference. We have to always, yes, we have to look for similarities with previous struggles, but we have to also recognize the differences during the war for the liberation of South Africa, Namibia and Angola from apartheid control and colonialism. We had Cuba come down with fighters to aid Angola and Namibia in their struggle. But we didn't see Americans come to the aid of South Africa militarily, openly, yes, they were supplying them with weapons, but they were not bringing their navy to fire at Cuban fighters. But what we see today is the United States, the United Kingdom, and pretty soon now we will be seeing European ships. 27 European countries said they were going to send their navies to support the US and the UK in their fight against Yemen. We will see now all of Europe fighting Yemen on behalf of Israel. So this is, I think the limitation of the comparison, the limitation of the comparisons. It seems that the West will fight all the way to maintain the Zionist colony. While they didn't do that, in the case of South Africa, Drt Wilmer Leon (49:03): There's another story. And this one they say was not widely reported if reported at all, Israeli operations in Gaza are in total chaos thanks to private privatization of logistics. They talk about in Tel Aviv that they begin a large scale invasion of Gaza on the 27th of October. And that this was basically a total failure that the Israelis really had no clue. They were in total confusion, they were in total chaos. And that this wasn't that widely reported. One of their retired generals, IDF, major general, its brick, said that there is a total mess that's not being talked about in the media. He was a veteran of the 1973 Yan Kippur War and the 1982 Lebanon War. He said, behind our excellent soldiers, there is total chaos, equipment, logistics, food, everything that needs to be moved forward is not working properly because the Army has entrusted everything to private companies. Because we had been led to believe before all of this started on the 6th of October that the IDF was the superior force, and that a lot of folks figured, oh, that once Hamas went in on the sixth, that oh, couple days this is going to be over. And now what we're finding is now they're struggling for survival. Laith Mafour (50:49): Yeah, they're struggling very, very hard. And remember, on October 7th, Hamas managed to take over 11 basis Israeli basis on the borders of Gaza and the main Shaak and Mossad base deeper in away from the border with Gaza and the main headquarters of the Israeli police special forces like the swat. And so they kept, Drt Wilmer Leon (51:23): Didn't you tell me that Israel lost 12 generals? Laith Mafour (51:28): Yes, Drt Wilmer Leon (51:29): On the 6th of October. Laith Mafour (51:30): So they lost 12 generals on the 7th of October and all their underlings basically also. And so these are the elite units that Israel had and the frontline units with Gaza destroyed completely. And since then, of course, everybody that they replaced these generals with has been practically slaughtered on the battlefield of Gaza, the ages of commanders in the Israeli military that are being declared as dead in the beginning of this war, the average age for a lieutenant colonel or major general were in their late thirties, early forties. Now the ages are in the early twenties, so this is around the 20 year drop in the age of officers in the core that the Israeli military has. So this means that they, they don't have the experience anymore. They don't have the knowledge of the battlefield. And now you add to it that you have mercenaries and private companies doing these supplies for Israel, and you clearly have chaos and add to it that you have American, British, French General sitting in the command center, everybody with their own views of things, it's a total mess. And it's showing that the Israeli military doesn't have options. They can't imagine options except genocide, which they are good at targeting civilians. Drt Wilmer Leon (53:24): In the couple of minutes that we have left, I want to give you the mic and allow you to speak to the West, speak to the world. This is an international program. What are the two major, two or three major things that you feel are not being communicated in the West that people really need to hear in order to have a better grasp of the reality in the region, to have a better grasp of the reality on the ground? Laith Maroth, the floor is yours. Laith Mafour (54:01): First thing I would say to our western audience is that they should be doing more to not only to help us in Palestine, liberation of it, but to get themselves ready for it's coming. For them, they already lost the right to speech, the right to media representation. The right to assembly is almost disappearing. And now, as we saw in the United Kingdom last week during the vote on the ceasefire brought by the socialist, this the Scottish Nationalist Party, they've also lost their right to representation, democratic representation at their parliaments. And if this war continues, as I am predicting, I'm telling you, it's going to be in the next few days, going to a much wider regional war with American and British soldiers coming back in coffins, people should be ready to even lose their possibility to have any representation. The democratic representation in the US and the uk, and people may think this is a little of an exaggeration, but let's just imagine it for a second that the United States goes into full war with Iran and all the access of resistance here. (55:37) As the election is coming in the United States, will there be an election? I mean, Biden already knows that he is losing the election because of the Arab Muslim vote. It's already done. He wants to ban Trump. If he bans Trump, if he can't ban Trump, what is he going to do? We may find ourself in martial law in the West all to save the Zionist colony, and I would urge the public in the West to do something before we get to that point. Because if we get to that point and we're in martial law in the capitals of London, Ottawa and Washington, dc there's no way you can come back from that. It is the time right now to take action, to change the direction of these governments. Drt Wilmer Leon (56:35): If I'm not even going to think to put words in your mouth, but let me see if I can convey this a slightly different way. You're not predicting what's going to happen. You are looking at the current reality and discussing the possibilities of what could happen. And I remember talking with you, you and I talk all the time. I remember talking with you, I want to say last June, last July, last August. And you were saying to me, then something big is about to happen. And I kept saying to you, what are you talking about? You said, well, I don't know, but the sense on the ground is something big is about to happen. And you started saying that more even in September, you said something big is about to happen. And then October 7th happened and I said, that damn lathe boy. So it's a matter of being in tune to what's going on around you. (57:49) And the other dot that I'll connect here, and again if I'm wrong, please correct me for those that don't believe that the Western governments would attack the media. Look at what's being done to Julian Assange, and that I believe is a clear signal the United States is trying to extradite from London, an Australian citizen who's never set, to my knowledge, never set foot in the United States, has no business in the United States, and they're trying to extradite him from London for violating American law, all in the attempt to scare Western journalists to not report reality. Am I wrong To connect those dots? Laith, Maro, Laith Mafour (58:47): You're not wrong, and I just want to be clear that I'm not a fortune teller, but because I live here and have been meeting with people, seeing the things that are happening, and because I lived 27 years in Canada and the United States and married to an American, my children are American and Canadian and have worked on these subjects and have seen the repression that came on myself for this work, I can tell you what is, we're not going to see the same things that happened 20 years ago. The expulsion of students, for instance, from universities, we're going to see them being shot as we saw chemical weapons being thrown at students at Columbia University. We are getting very close as we saw right now with the Vietnam emulation coming back right now, we could be seeing very any moment now American students being shot by the National Guard because they're demonstrating for the liberation of Palestine. (59:56) This is the reality. And as we saw in Palestine here and the region expanding this war, if a war breaks out right now in Lebanon at a full scale, we're just still now skirmishes, the numbers of 40,000 dead in Gaza are going to be seen in one day. It's not going to be something. These numbers are going to explode, and this is going to drag us into those people that are demonstrating in the streets in the US and Canada and England. Are they going to demonstrate less or more when the numbers double and triple and quadruple in days of martyrs? Are they going to take more drastic action like Aaron or not? Of course they are. And how is the state going to respond? It is going to respond with more oppression and the minute the situation gets out of hand, we will see ourself in those possibilities of martial law being called in these countries. Drt Wilmer Leon (01:01:04): My dear brother, Laith Maru, I want to thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for joining the show. Laith Mafour (01:01:11): Thank you. Have a nice day. Drt Wilmer Leon (01:01:14): Folks. Thank you so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes that come out every week. Also, please, please, please, baby, please, baby, baby. Please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow us on social media. You can find all the links to the show. They are listed below. And remember that this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wimer Leon. Have a great one. Peace. We're out Announcer (01:02:09): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.  

If you wanna find God, go look in the midst of His people.  He is found in the midst of the knuckleheads He loves.  He is in the midst in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.  He is in the midst of the Israelites in the Exodus. He is literally in the middle of the churches of Western Asia.  Should it be any surprise that we will find Him today in the midst of the church He loves?Moses understood, "If you are not going to go in the middle of us, we are not interested in going." He begged for it. So should we.  bewithme.us to find God tomorrow too. Listen, on Apple Podcasts and Castbox and Spotify.

Major economic shifts are occurring in the world, in part driven by a response to Western imperialist nations' long history of attempting to impose their will through economic and military coercive measures. To understand the current state of globalization and where it is headed, Clearing the FOG speaks with Radhika Desai, the director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba. Desai discusses neoliberalism and how it weakens first world economies as well as alternatives such as the BRICS formation that are starting to have a significant impact in challenging Western hegemony. She also describes the current events in Western Asia as another turning point in the decline of Western power. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

Find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com.   This week's episode features Ray McGovern. Former CIA analyst and foreign policy advocate in Washington, DC. He join us to give some history and context on the Israeli/Hamas war.   TRANSCRIPT:   Speaker 1 (00:42): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:51): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this broadcast, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. According to my guest self-proclaimed Zionist, Joe Biden, with no witts about him is assuring the destruction of Zionist apartheid Israel as corrupt US Intel leaders have unleashed the dogs of war. We cannot be bystanders, quote, indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. That's Rabbi Abraham Heschel for insight into this. Let's turn to my guest. He leads the speaking truth to power section of Tell the Word a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in inner city Washington. He served as a CIA analyst for 27 years. His duties including chairing the National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President's daily brief. And he also ran the Russia desk for the CIA. And in January of 2003, he co-created veteran intelligence professionals for sanity. He is Ray McGovern. Ray, welcome and let's connect some dots. Ray McGovern (02:34): Thanks, Dr. Leon Dr. Wilmer Leon (02:36): Ray, you recently published a piece at raymcgovern.com entitled, can You give a brief synopsis of what's happening in Israel? And it's based upon a response to a question from, I believe your youngest daughter. She asked you to explain to her what's happening in occupied Palestine and it opens as follows. I was nine years old, 1948 when there was huge celebration in the Bronx at the founding of the state of Israel. No one told me that Arabs had lived on that land for centuries and were displaced by force. Tens of thousands of them crammed into postage stamped Gaza and now host to millions of Palestinians. Ray, I'll throw it to you. Why was it so important for you to write this piece? Ray McGovern (03:30): Wilmer? Frankly, I was really encouraged that one of my children, and we have five, was interested in knowing what I thought about this. (03:43) Prophets are without renown in their hometowns and sometimes in their own homes. So when Miriam asked me this question, I said, well, she wants a short, concise paragraph, so I'll try and I failed. I couldn't do it In one concise paragraph, I said, look, here's somebody who's genuinely interested. She has three young children. She's got a very busy life, but she knows that this is important. So let me explain some of the background to this. And so I started out first with the, so-called religious justification for what Israel did. Well in occupying lands already occupied by Palestinian people for centuries before I have been in the West Bank, I have been in Israel at one point, we went up a hill to a Jewish settlement. This is about eight years ago now. At the bottom of the hill, there was devastation. There was no running water, there was poverty of an extreme kind. (05:03) When we went up to the top of the hill, whoa, you look like a golf course for God sake, green lawns being watered, okay? And a rabbi from Cleveland telling us why he's entitled to be there as a settler. So one of my colleagues, we were on a little delegation, said, well, a rabbi, how do you explain the conditions right down at the bottom of this hill in Palestinian territory, and you're beautiful settlement up here. And he said, without hesitation. Well, God promised us this land. Now, I had heard that before and I know not enough about the what's so called the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, but I knew this. I knew that they depend on Deuteronomy 15 four for that. So I basically, rabbi, please cite the part of scripture that justifies your settling on this land. And he said, that's easy. He said, Yahweh said to the Jewish people, you shall have this land flowing with milk and honey. (06:22) And I said, continue, rabbi, continue. And he said, what do you mean continue? I said, well, you're only giving us half of the deal, right? He said, well, what do you mean? I said, read the rest of the verse. So there shall be no poor among you. He said, oh, you forgot to. So it was a deal. It was, well, you might call it a covenant. All right. You shall have this land so that there shall be no poor among you. And I thought that Miriam should know this, that when she hears people say, oh, wait a second, I promised this stuff. It was a deal. And the Israelis, of course, have broken that deal in a scurrilous way. So that's the way I started out. I went into some of the more recent history. But go back to the Hebrew scriptures. It's very clear what God's promise was. Assuming you think this is important. And of course the settlers think it's important. That's why they always cited Dr. Wilmer Leon (07:28): Ray two things. One, it would be one thing if the scripture said, I will give you this land of milk and honey so that you will not be poor. But that's not what it says. It says so that there will not be poor among you. And there's also a reason why those individuals are called settlers. And there's also a reason why that region is called the occupied territories. Ray McGovern (08:06): That's right, Wilmer. And it's an embarrassing history we Americans have because we were settlers on the land, peopled by Native Americans, and we kind of pushed them aside just as Israel has pushed the Palestinians aside. So it's not a happy history. But when you're a settler, well, that's a nice way of putting that. You're coming from outside and you've displaced people who have a right to live on those lands. So as I said in the beginning of this piece, I came from the Bronx. I lived there for my first 22 years before I went in and served as an army officer. Now, when I was nine years old, 19 eight, oh man, it was sort of like the 4th of July, 10 times over Israel had a home, right? And as I noted at the beginning, well, nobody told me. Well, he told me that it was not a land for people, a land without any people in it. (09:15) Well, there were people in it. And that's the basic part of all this. And if you go more recent in the history, I was serving as a CIA analyst in 1967 when the Israelis attacked Egypt and Syria decimated their Air Force and enlarged Israeli territory to include parts of Syria, to include the West Bank, to include the Sinai, to include Gaza, lots of places to include, right? Okay. Now we thought, or we were told that Egypt was about to attack Israel. Well, that was the legends put forward for many years after 1967. But finally, man, be a former Israeli prime minister, got up before an audience in Washington in 1982 and call it chutzpah, call it honesty. Call it a cleansing of his conscience. But this is what he said. It's not long. I want to read it so that I don't mess it up. All right, man. Bein former Israeli prime minister quote, in June, 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the side eye approaches do not prove that SSO is already really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him. (11:07) It was duly reported in the New York Times and people in New York and elsewhere where I was living. Oh, isn't that interesting? So the Israelis said, well, that's called aggression. That's calling creating Libens home. Okay? Not terribly dissimilar from what happened in the thirties at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. And so that's the truth behind all this. Now, how did the UN react then back in 67 when all this happened? There was the unanimous security council resolution, resolution two, four, two, that call for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. Was it a close vote? It was unanimous. Okay. Did the Israelis do that? No, they didn't do that. Why didn't they do that? Because of chutzpah? Because the Israelis can always depend on the United States to defend them no matter what they do. And so they have occupied all those territories. They gave back the Sinai to Egypt when there was an agreement under Jimmy Carter, but the Sinai is not worth keeping. (12:17) Actually. Now the people in Gaza are bearing the brunch of this occupation, this oppression, and as I quoted Rabbi Heschel, one of my very favorite people who marched with Dr. King back in the late sixties, that we're not all guilty, but we are all responsible. How did I put it? How did he put it? Indifference to evil is worse than evil itself. That's what we have to measure up to this time. There's been evil in Gaza, and we have to make sure that we don't one sidedly accuse one side and give the other a free ride, so to speak. As has been the case since the US reacted to the UN resolution, it didn't do diddly, as we say in the Bronx to enforce it. Dr. Wilmer Leon (13:23): There's a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of disinformation and outright lies that are being used in support of the Zionist US narrative of this illegal occupation of Palestine, as well as the genocide of Palestinians. I want to read a brief statement and then show a map before I come back to you. Here's a statement. This is from the foreign office, the 2nd of November, 1917, and it reads, dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of his Majesty's government. The following declaration of sympathy with Jewish scientist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the cabinet, his majesty's government view, with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object. It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done, which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. (14:36) I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation, yours, Arthur James Balfour. Now this is known as the Balfour Declaration. The British government decided in 1917 to endorse the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine, not Israel, Palestine. After discussions within the cabinet and the consulting with the Jewish leaders, the decision was made public. And we have this letter to that point. Here's a map from National Geographic from 1947 where you can see Lebanon, Syria, trans Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine. Israel is not on this map. Why? Because contrary to the dominant Western narrative, Israel did not exist. That's why we know now Israel is actually the occupied territories. Ray people will have a tendency to try to categorize this conversation as anti-Semitic, which is why if we can put the map back up one more time, I want to be sure that people see this map. This is history. This is not narrative. This is not rhetoric. This is history. Ray McGovern. Ray McGovern (16:14): Well, history can be very antisemitic. (16:22) I mean, it's hard to realize that most Americans are blissfully unaware of all this. The maps show the story. Now, the situation right now is different. How is it different? Well, the Soviets, I used to be a Soviet analyst analyst of Russians, foreign policy. The Soviets used to talk about a concept called the correlation of forces. Now, it's not rocket science, okay? It had to do with the balance of power in the world. Now, guess what folks? The balance of power in the world has shifted. People are now talking about a shift from a unipolar world, which is what the US was since World War ii, and particularly since the Soviet Union fell apart to a multipolar world where other countries are allowed to have a say in these things. Well, I look at it as a bipolar world, and I would refer more recently just to the yesterday's vote at the un, where the US was the only one to veto a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling for the Israelis, not to ethnically cleanse Gaza as they apparently still intend to do. (17:53) So what's my point? My point is that everyone, not even the British voted with us this time, okay? 12 to one was there was two abstentions. So what am I saying? I'm saying that the Arab countries, well, here's an example. The Arab ambassadors in Beijing asked the Chinese, please get us all together. We would need to talk about what's going to happen in Gaza. And the Chinese did. The head of Iran calls up arch rival the head of Saudi Arabia and says, we got to do something about this. And they have a cordial conversation. Okay? Next thing you know, he is talking to the head of Hamas. He's talking to the head of Hezbollah, okay? So there are things that are happening here where it's where the deck is being stacked heavily against the United States, and it's sat traps like the UK and France and Germany. They're not very long for this world, those governments, okay? So what we have here is a condition where 20 years ago, the US could work its will. Okay? No longer can it. Hamas is well-equipped. I don't think that killing civilians is a good idea, nor do I. When you look at it or when you look at it, you say, well, was this unprovoked? (19:31) Unprovoked seems to be the adjective of choice here. Just as PCIs decision to defend his compatriots in the DBAs was not unprovoked, neither was Hamas' reaction here without making any moral judgements, which is something that intelligence analysts are not called to do. Actually, we can say you can understand this given the recent history and the more distant history that we've referred to earlier. Dr. Wilmer Leon (20:07): I'm very glad that you put it that way because a lot of times people misconstrue, and I'll just put this on a personal level. I'm not a former, not an intelligence analyst, but I am a political scientist, not a political operative. And so people have a tendency to misconstrue my explanation of events with my agreeing with the events, my saying, I understand why President Putin and Russia went into Ukraine. I understand it because I understand the history. I understand why Hamas took the actions that it did. I don't condone the killing of civilians. I don't condone the killing of children, but I understand why Hamas did what they did. If you could quickly, Tony Blinken, you were just talking about the shift from the unipolar to the multipolar world. Talk a little bit about Tony Blinken and this whole concept of the rules based order, because Tony Blinken in the Biden administration, they love to talk about the rules based order, but when you try to find a definition of it, you can't because it only exists in the mind of Tony Blinken. They rarely talk about international law. They always want to talk about the rules based order. Ray McGovern (21:46): You put your finger on it, the rules based international order, well, it's a contrived expression. It's meant to substitute for international law and the United Nations. It was invented by Blinken and Sullivan and Nolan, and I mean poin and Laro, the foreign minister have made fun of it. Well, tell us about this. We try to Google it, but could you please give us, can you give us a piece of paper to describe what the rules based into law? And of course they can. And what it means is what we say goes, we make the rules, and that's it. Dr. Wilmer Leon (22:30): And you follow our orders. Ray McGovern (22:33): People are getting wise to that increasing number of people witness the vote at the UN yesterday, 12 to one, the one being the United States. The saving grace here, as I say it, is that the UN is still being respected by China, by Russia, and by some of the other countries that are insisting that we abide by UN regulations. First and foremost in this context, security council resolution 2, 4, 2 of November 22nd, 1967 ordering is to relinquish control of the occupied territories that they seized in 1967. So what's the hope here? Well, the hope was yesterday. The US talks about Russia being isolated. Look, (23:34) And maybe just maybe these Zionists, and I'll use that word advisedly. I mean, Joe Biden has bragged about being a real dy in the world. Zionist, so has Blinken and Sullivan, the rest of them. Okay? What does that mean? That means the people that occupied the Palestinian Territories occupied by Palestinians for as just as Native Americans in our example, four centuries before, it doesn't make sense. And it's not going to make any headway no matter how much we invoke this rule space, international order. Thanks for raising that, because it's very telling how we thought that we could just invent a new phrase and substitute it for international law. And the UN Dr. Wilmer Leon (24:29): President Biden, when he went to the region on this, so-called Peacekeeping tour, wherever the heck he was supposed to be doing, he talked about peace. And to your point earlier on, not on this trip, but earlier on he was very clear, I am a Zionist. And then Tony Blinken goes and he says, I am here not only as the Secretary of State of the United States, but I'm here as a Jew. What message do you think that sends to the Arabs in the region who he allegedly is supposed to be trying to find some common ground with and bring about some type of peaceful resolution to this conflict? Ray McGovern (25:18): Well, I think the word is chutzpah and naivete. If blinken doesn't know how that goes over with the Arab leaders that he is talking to, he is hopelessly blind. Wait Dr. Wilmer Leon (25:35): A minute, wait a minute, Ray, does he care? Because what that I remember very clearly probably two years ago when Blinken went to Anchorage, Alaska to meet with the Chinese delegation, and the Chinese delegation got up and said, we're not going to sit here and let you lecture us. We're China. We don't have to sit here and listen to you. And they got up and walked out of the room. That to me, sounds eerily reminiscent or what just transpired with Tony Blinken in the Middle East sounds eerily reminiscent to what he tried to do with the Chinese. Ray McGovern (26:17): Well, Wilmer, you probably have seen President Biden reading from his little notes, even in a very short a session with Netanyahu. So who writes the notes? Dr. Wilmer Leon (26:33): Tony Ray McGovern (26:33): Blink. Well, Blinken writes the notes. Dr. Wilmer Leon (26:36): Victoria Newland. Ray McGovern (26:37): Victoria Newland. Now, what does Victoria Newland have in common? What Jacob Sullivan have in common? They're all of Jewish extraction. Now, should that ordinarily matter? No. Does it matter? Now? It happens to matter. Now we're talking about a Jewish home land created at the expense of the Palestinian people. We're talking about Zionism, which is a political movement, not a religion. So the three top people at the State Department have traditionally been Zionists, not only Jews, but Zionists. Now, this is not lost on the Middle East leaders or China or Russia. And you could see their hold on Biden from the very first part of his administration. The first thing he did, we got up and he said, now China, China's going to be, has aspirations to be the most powerful country in the world, not only economically, but strategically. That's not going to happen on my watch. (27:51) Okay? Next thing he does is he lets himself be set up by Stephanopoulos George Stephanopoulos, who says, now, Mr. President, do you think Putin's a killer? And by, oh, he's a killer. Okay? And then they meet with the Chinese at Anchorage and read him the riot act about the rules. Basically, the Chinese say, we know all about this. We spent a century throwing off your predecessors, the British selling with the gun diplomas. That's all the folks. And as you say, they didn't put up with it. So you have at the very outset of his administration laying down the line, look, were all powerful, which is not the case anymore. We're Zionists, which happens to be the case anymore. Let me introduce one sort of comment that Biden made without reading from his little cards there, I think was on the plane coming home yesterday. He said, I made a note of it. He says, I can understand why people in the Middle East region would not believe the Israelis, or that maybe the bombing of that hospital was not intentional. (29:17) Well, I can understand why the people of that region would not believe the Israeli. The question is why you believe him, Joe Biden, and whether now Jacob Sullivan, I have to tell you, people object to my saying Jacob Sullivan, but that's his first name. Okay? Just like remember Scooter Libby who worked for Janie. His first was Israel Libby. So why does he go by Scooter? Why does Jacob go by Jake? I don't know, but I can make a little guess here. Okay. Jacob Sullivan is Zionist as the Newlands and the Blinken of this world, and of course the president who styles himself as the supreme Zionist. What does that mean? Well, it means that it's over the US and Israel. It's just going to take a couple of months. Now for people to realize that, and the fear I have Wilmer, the fear I have is that there's too much at stake personally for President Biden and for Blinken and Nod and Sullivan and Nolan and Hunter Biden, there's too much at personal stake for them to go away quietly and acknowledge the new correlation of forces. (30:37) If they lose the wars, if they lose the election, they could end up in jail. The evidence is there, and court documents in sworn testimony, bribery, impeachment proceedings may go forward. So I'm always saying, I don't give a rat's patooty about what happens in impeachment considerations. What I care about is how they are likely to react to save their own patootie. And that introduces an element of instability and personal stake that worries me greatly. And it doesn't matter what worries McGovern greatly, I'm sure it worries Russian and Chinese leaders greatly too, and has them on tenterhooks as to what will happen over the next year. Dr. Wilmer Leon (31:29): When you look at the surveys right now, when you look at the polling data, the race for 2024 between President Biden and former President Trump, by most polls, is a dead heat, one or two points. It's within the margin of error. History tells us that countries tend not to shift leadership or change leadership in the midst of conflict slash war. You mentioned if they lose the election, I'm sorry, you mentioned if they lose the war, if they lose the election, does Joe Biden need this conflict in his mind in order to save his administration? Ray McGovern (32:19): I don't think Joe Biden is Compass Menis. I think that Blinken and Sullivan, Nolan, they are extremely Compass mentors. They have a lot to fear. Let's say that Trump wins election, as I said before, the evidence is out there, not only of bribery and those kinds of things, and Hunter Biden's laptop and the inclusion of corrupt former intelligence officials and all that kind of stuff. But Blinken was personally involved in arranging for Biden to win via a subterfuge. What do I mean? Well, when Hunter Biden's laptop was revealed and the scarless repeat stuff on, and his dealings with calling his father's brand name into, well, how did they decide to handle that was three weeks before the election. Oh, what happened? Well, by testimony to Congress, by a former acting director of the CIA, his name is Mikey Morell. He said, I got a call from Tony Blinken, and he said, the best way to handle the Hunter Biden laptop is could you get former intelligence directors to say that it has all the earmarks of a Russian intelligence disinformation operation? (33:56) And Mikey Mell said, sure, I can do that. Three days later, Mikey Morell has rounded up 50 count 'em, 50 former intelligence directors and very high officials, speaks pretty poorly of them, doesn't it? 50 plus Mikey Morrell, and he says 51 former intelligence directors, including four or five former directors of the CIA, as if that enhances their credibility. Say, this has all the earmarks, Russian intelligence, disinformation operation. Now, was that consequential? Well, all I know is that two days later, Joe Biden had his last debate with Trump, and Trump raised this. Biden said, oh, don't you know that this is in all the earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation? Now, why do I go into that detail? I mean, that should not have happened. Okay? I don't know whether that won the election for Biden or not, but you don't do these things. They have to be illegal, in my view. (35:09) So Blinken himself is on 10 hooks. He could be prosecuted, he could be put in jail, and Jacob Sullivan, just the word about him, he invented Russiagate, the non-existent Russian hacking of the DNC computer for Hillary Clinton's emails and all that stuff that showed that she had stolen the nomination for Bernie Sanders. That was Sullivan. He was a big campaign manager for Hillary Clinton. So that's all out there. Now, I don't know if Trump came in, and I will not comment on what I think of Trump. If he came in, he's not loath to hold these people accountable, and on this case, he's got the law behind him. So again, there's great incentive on the part of all these people preparing their notes for Joe Biden to keep the war going in Ukraine and not lose before the election, and to help the Israelis to the degree the US can still not lose in Gaza. The last one is not possible anymore. Neither is the first one. So what am I afraid of? I'm afraid that they will react according to this personal stick they have, and it's to happen before when you have this kind of personal stake and you have advisors like these guys who are saying, Joe, look, if we lose this, look what happens then. You don't have to write notes to Joe. He understands this. He's a politician, and that's what worries me. Sorry to carry on at that point. Dr. Wilmer Leon (36:52): I Ray McGovern (36:52): Think this is an important aspect. It's not really covered elsewhere. Dr. Wilmer Leon (36:58): You are former intelligence official, and you understand the subtleties of diplomacy. And one of the things that I find very interesting is when you listen to President Putin, when you listen to President Xi, when you listen to Raisi in Iran, they speak in very subtle undertones. So when Donald Trump assassinated, general Ray McGovern (37:29): Soleimani, Dr. Wilmer Leon (37:31): Soleimani, Iran said, we're going to retaliate, and a lot of people expected the retaliation to be coming shortly thereafter. It did not come well, as Tony Blinken was traversing the Middle East recently, the Iranian foreign minister was doing the same thing with his allies and released a statement saying, Israel, the time is up. Did that convey to you a not so subtle message that people need to be paying attention to? Ray McGovern (38:17): Well, it does, and that's really one outstanding aspect of what happened over the last week. The notion that the president of Iran would call up the leader of Saudi Arabia to coordinate on what they're going to do. I mean, that's a tectonic shift in the relationship between those two countries. And raci, the president of Iran has been traveling all around, and he's got, he talks to this area and he talks to the Egyptians, and actually the Egyptians and the Jordanians wouldn't even receive Joe Biden when he wanted to see them. So what we need to do is recognize, Dr. Wilmer Leon (39:13): And Mohammad bin Salman made Tony Blinken wait an entire day, actually overnight, because I guess he had gone fishing in somewhere in Saudi Arabia, and he was on a fishing trip in Saudi Arabia and couldn't be bothered. So he thinked Tony, again, from a diplomatic perspective, that's one of those not so subtle messages that says, I really don't feel I'd being bothered with you. Ray McGovern (39:43): And Saudi Arabia is very, very, very important, not only because of the oil, but because of the raro schmo that was going on with China and with others. So maybe the Saudi foreign minister was supervising some beheadings in the public square. You get pretty busy in Saudi Arabia when head start rolling, and I understand he did give Blinken access to a men's room there as he waited. So there's some niceties that were observed, but he gave away overnight. You don't do that with, at least you didn't use to do that with the Secretary of State of the United States of America, least of all. Would the Saudi Arabia's have done that? So that's just one little symptom of the tectonic shift in relations where us is no longer the unipolar power, but rather a bipolar with them with the United States. And I am an American citizen. I really mourn the fact that because they're own ineptitude and chutzpah that would put ourselves in this situation. And I dare say that the Israelis do what everyone thinks they're going to do. Now, it's going to be all hell to pay because the Iranians has Pua, Hamas, the Egyptians, the Hezbollah, the others, even the Saudis for are not going to sit around and tolerate the of 2 million people in Gaza. Dr. Wilmer Leon (41:39): Yemen isn't going to be too happy with this either. Ray McGovern (41:44): Yemen as well. Yeah. Dr. Wilmer Leon (41:46): So people watching this, people listening to this, they may be saying, wow, Wilmer, you and Ray are spending an awful lot of time talking about foreign policy, talking about the Middle East. We have homelessness in the United States. We have abject poverty. We have all these declines in the standard of living in the United States. Why spend so much time talking about this instead of talking about that? Ray McGovern (42:19): Well, because they're connected. As you well know, every billion you send to Ukraine, every billion you send to Israel is at the expense of these people. The poor people in our country that need all that kind of help, there shall be no poor among you. Well, that's a universal. That's a universal, in my view. It doesn't have to be a Hebrew scripture. I mean, the Christian, the Christian, and I say Judeo-Christian attitude toward justice Wiler. We have this American concept of justice where you have this blind lady of all people holding these scales and the images impartiality image, no favoritism to one or the other. Now, lemme tell you something, and your listeners, the Judeo-Christian, the biblical concept of justice is unbalanced and biased to the core in favor of the poor. The hated poor as the Old Testament called the very word in pre Aramaic for justice, denotes not connotes, denotes showing mercy to the poor. (43:46) Now, that used to be kind of observed, FDR, my father's favorite president, he cried when FDR died. He knew in his heart what he needed to do, poor people. He brought us out of that depression. There used to be a Democratic party that cared mostly about the poor. When I asked my father, I said, dad, what's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? He said, all Democrats care about people. Okay, care about poor people. Well, that ain't the case anymore. They're all joined at the hip. And what do they care about? Stuffing their own pockets. What was really a revelation to me was when Pope Francis came to Congress 2015, I think it was, and there was a joint section, and he stands up there, and to his credit, Pope Francis says, and I quote, the main problem today is the blood soaked arms trade. Okay? The main problem today is the blood soaked arms trade. (45:04) Now what do those congressmen, what do the senators do? Oh, they go, they, oh, yeah, right? And he stood up, and then they looked in their pocket ship envelope from Raytheon was still there, and it went from Lockheed over here. I mean, it was giving hypocrisy a bad name, okay? These guys know what the message was, but they're so soaked in this money and this power that it's going to take a lot of us, a lot of us who care about the poor, and a lot of us who can show opportunity costs is what the economists use. (45:45) For every 150 million you spend on creating an F 35, what could be done in your school district to pay the teachers a decent way? What could be do? What could be done in Iowa or Nebraska or any of these places which are being downtrodden? Okay? People need to make this very specific. This money is going to these high people that are making 20, $30 million a year as salaries, as CEOs or Raytheon and Lockheed general dynamics. That ain't sustainable. We need to get up and find out where these people live. Shame them into relenting a little bit and saying, look, maybe 10 million is enough for your salary, and maybe we'll give the balance to the poor. So round this thing up, I happen to be out of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and this reinforces my, what's the word, my imperative to honor the concept of justice, which is not balanced in favor of everybody because it's, it's not a level playing field. It's a unbalanced, it's biased and prejudice to the core in favor of the poor. Now, that's what I come out of as a faith perspective. I'll just add one other thing. I had a Jesuit teacher who was a real good friend of mine. I said, well, how would you describe your theology? I said, that's very simple. I can put it in one sentence. I said, what's that? He says, well, it all depends on what kind of God you believe in and how God feels when little people are pushed around. (47:47) And, okay, I'll say that again, and how God feels when little people are pushed around. Now, you don't have to believe in God. You can just believe in justice. I had agnostics and atheists tell me, look, Ray, you don't have to go into the Bible here. Human beings know that we're supposed to be fair, and that's true. Human beings used to know that we need to get back on the track here and do everything we can to make sure they realize that. Now, the more so since things are getting very, very perilous for us, not only in Ukraine, but in Western Asia as it's called now, Dr. Wilmer Leon (48:29): In mentioning Ukraine, you also have a piece at your website, Ray mcgovern.com entitled, fact Checking Putin on Ukraine. President Putin gave an interview right before he went to China for the Belt and Road Initiative Conference, and you say, media consumers should be permitted to learn what Putin said, particularly about Ukraine and Russia's problems dealing with various US administrations over the years. Readers who rely on the paper of record, however, will be shielded from his remarks, and thus, any temptation to ask if they might be true. And you went through a lot of what Russian President Putin had to say. You did your own fact checking. And what were some of the conclusions that you came to regarding President Putin's the veracity of his comments? Ray McGovern (49:35): Well, I checked them all, and there were two that I needed to consult others on because I wasn't a hundred percent sure. One had to do with when Soviet Russian forces went up there near Kiev and were abruptly withdrawn very early in the war in Ukraine, I always wondered about that. Putin claims that that was part of a deal, not a covenant, but at least a deal. Now, what was the deal? The deal was reached with Ukrainian officials in Glarus and in Turkey. There was a deal to stop the war, to have a ceasefire, to commit Ukraine, not to join NATO, and to bring Russian troops down from where they were threatening Kiev. That's what Putin claims. Now, I checked around because my memory is just one person, but I found out, yeah, that's probably why the Russian troops went down from that area. It's not because they couldn't have taken Kiev, although they didn't really have all that many troops there. (50:54) But the Russians, from the very outset of their special military operation, appeal to the Ukrainians, look, we'd like to have a deal here. All we want is some respect for our own security. We don't want NATO coming in as a bulwark against us. Now, what happened? Well, the Ukrainians talked and they reached an agreement in Ankara on the 31st of March, 2022, and it said these things that I just spelled out what happened? Well, the US in the person of Boris Johnson from the uk, he visited Kiev right away and said, no, no, no deal. You may be willing to deal with Russia, but we're not. We want to continue this thing. The object here is to give the Russians a bloody nose, a strategic defeat. Okay? And so what does Zelensky do? Oh, okay. Sorry. Sorry. I won't do that anymore. Okay. That's how that thing went down. (51:58) Now, I remember reading this in S, the official organ in Ukraine. I mean, that's pretty good. But when I had confirmation about this from some of the people that know the military situation a little better than I did, I said, yeah, well, that was correct too. Now, Wilmer, without belaboring this, I have to tell you that after fact checking all this and trying to offer this as an alternative view by somebody who had fact checked it, I couldn't get it published. I couldn't get it published on a very, well, what we shall say, a very anti-war website. Dr. Wilmer Leon (52:46): But Ray Ray, that's got to be impossible because Joe Biden has told us that we stand for democracy, that Putin is a dictator and that he's an autocrat, and we stand for the freedom of press in America. Ray, how could you not get something like that published? Ray McGovern (53:07): Well, I guess my point Wilmer here is that I've long since stopped trying to get something in The Times or the Washington Post. I used to be able to do that 10 years ago, like twice a year. But the alternative media, for God sake, the progressive media is now saying, oh, that sounds a little bit too. So here, I check these things. I double check with the people who know about things they're not quite sure about. I put it out there and say, well, that sounds a little bit too, we can't run that. So that's the alternative media. That's the binder where nobody wants to feel like they could be susceptible to criticism of being pro Putin, that my friend, is how bad it has become. Dr. Wilmer Leon (54:02): I was at dinner with some friends, and one of them asked kind of a generic question about this media and whose interests are being served, and this can't be some invisible cabal that is behind the scenes, being sure that a particular narrative is only being articulated. And I said, no, it doesn't really have to be a cabal, because when you look at Jeff Bezos, for example, and he owns the Washington Post, and he owns Amazon, and look at where Jeff Bezos has received most of his money from Amazon Data Systems, which is a defense contractor. I said, look at, what's his name, knowns Tesla, and he controls X, and where does he get most of his money from? SpaceX and starlink defense contractors. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a cabal as much as it is the confluence of interests that understand which side their bread is buttered on. Is that fair to say? Ray McGovern (55:29): Well, Wilmer, I have an expression or an acronym called the Mickey Mat, the military industrial Congressional Intelligence Media, academia think tank complex. It's in some dictionaries now. Okay, why do I say media? Because the media is controlled by the rest of the Mickey Mat. That's the situation we're in now. Now you mentioned Jeff Bezos, and you correctly pointed out he gets lots of money from the federal government, CIA, and others. Okay, but the people he picks, well, there was a fellow named Fred Hyatt who ran the editorial section of the Washington Post, like the op-ed section. Okay? And before the war in Iraq, about 90% of the op-eds were, oh, yeah, they're weapons of mass, weapons of, okay, so what happens after the war when there are no weapons of mass destruction? He goes up to the Columbia School of Journalism, and when a naive student says, Mr. Hyatt, you kept saying that there were weapons of mass destruction as flat fact, and it turned out not to be any. How do you explain that? And Hyatt famously said, well, if there weren't weapons of mass destruction, we probably should not have said that. There were, (56:58) My patron, Robert Perry of recent memory turned to me at that, and he said, Ray, that used to be sort of like a cardinal principle or journalism. If something's not true, you're not supposed to say it's okay. What happened to Fred Hyatt? He stayed in place for 20 more years running the op-ed section. So what's my point? No one, no one is held accountable for these things. That's up to us. We have to find ways to hold people accountable, and what that involves, I leave to people, but we have to start getting off to our rear ends. We have to put our bodies into it as I have in the past. They're not going to kill you. They'll beat you up, all put you in prison, but it's worth it because so much is at stake right now, and I've never seen, never seen a more tentative, a more dangerous time to include the prospect of the use of many nuclear weapons, which eventually would do us all in. Dr. Wilmer Leon (58:01): We have just about a minute and a half or so left, and I want to read, this is from M-S-N-B-C, and this is from the April 6th, 2022. In a break with the past US is using Intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid. What that means, boys and girls, is M-S-N-B-C is admitting that they are lying to the American people under the pretext of the noble line. They're lying to you. Boy, Ray McGovern American people, first of all, Ray, thank you so much for your time today, and where can folks find your work? Ray McGovern (58:51): Well, I'm sure that Plato and his noble liar kind of turning around in the grave right now. Dr. Wilmer Leon (59:01): Where can people find your work? Ray McGovern (59:03): Oh, where? Okay. Well, I am Twittering. That's @RayMcGovern. Okay. My website is raymcgovern.com. I'm also on Facebook and on Instagram, so I hope that you'll tune in. My son who runs my website always says, Ray, always say, always add. If you don't get it, you won't get it. You don't get it. But I'm too humble to say that. Dr. Wilmer Leon (59:31): Ray McGovern, thanks for joining me. Big shout out to my producer, melody McKinley. Thank you all so much for joining the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Folks, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history, converge talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. Stay tuned for the new podcasts every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow me on social media. You can find all the links below in the show description. I'll see you all next time, and until then, please treat each day like it's your last, because one day you'll be right. I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Peace and Blessings. I'm out.

On January 11 and 12, the International Court of Justice, also called the World Court, will hear testimony in South Africa's case charging the state of Israel with genocide. Organizations around the world are mobilizing to press their governments to support South Africa publicly and through Declarations of Intervention in the hope that Israel will be held accountable and that effective actions will be taken to protect the rights and lives of people in Palestine. Clearing the FOG speaks with Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild, about the Genocide Convention, the new International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine and the risk of a broader war in Western Asia. For More information, visit PopularResistance.org.

Global economic growth is projected to slow from an estimated 2.7 percent in 2023 to 2.4 per cent in 2024, trending below the pre-pandemic growth rate of 3.0 per cent, according to the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2024 report.At the launch of the report today (04 Jan), Hantanu Mukherjee, Director of the Economic Analysis and Policy Division and Hamid Rashid, Chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Branch, Economic Analysis and Policy Division, UN DESA, spoke to reporters in New York. .This latest forecast comes on the heels of global economic performance exceeding expectations in 2023. However, last year's stronger-than-expected GDP growth masked short-term risks and structural vulnerabilities.The UN's flagship economic report presents a sombre economic outlook for the near term. Persistently high interest rates, further escalation of conflicts, sluggish international trade, and increasing climate disasters, pose significant challenges to global growth.The prospects of a prolonged period of tighter credit conditions and higher borrowing costs present strong headwinds for a world economy saddled with debt, while in need of more investments to resuscitate growth, fight climate change and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).“2024 must be the year when we break out of this quagmire. By unlocking big, bold investments we can drive sustainable development and climate action, and put the global economy on a stronger growth path for all,” said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary- General. “We must build on the progress made in the past year towards an SDG Stimulus of at least $500 billion per year in affordable long-term financing for investments in sustainable development and climate action.”Subdued growth in developed and developing economies Growth in several large, developed economies, especially the United States, is projected to decelerate in 2024 given high interest rates, slowing consumer spending and weaker labour markets. The short-term growth prospects for many developing countries – particularly in East Asia, Western Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean – are also deteriorating because of tighter financial conditions, shrinking fiscal space and sluggish external demand. Low-income and vulnerable economies are facing increasing balance-of-payments pressures and debt sustainability risks. Economic prospects for small island developing States, in particular, will be constrained by heavy debt burdens, high interest rates and increasing climate-related vulnerabilities, which threaten to undermine, and in some cases, even reverse gains made on the SDGs.Inflation trending down but recovery in labour markets still uneven.Global inflation is projected to decline further, from an estimated 5.7 per cent in 2023 to 3.9 per cent in 2024. Price pressures are, however, still elevated in many countries and any further escalation of geopolitical conflicts risks renewed increases in inflation.In about a quarter of all developing countries, annual inflation is projected to exceed 10 percent in 2024, the report highlights. Since January 2021, consumer prices in developing economies have increased by a cumulative 21.1 per cent, significantly eroding the economic gains made following the COVID-19 recovery. Amid supply-side disruptions, conflicts and extreme weather events, local food price inflation remained high in many developing economies, disproportionately affecting the poorest households.“Persistently high inflation has further set back progress in poverty eradication, with especially severe impacts in the least developed countries,” said Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “It is absolutely imperative that we strengthen global cooperation and the multilateral trading system, reform development finance, address debt challenges and scale up climate financing to help vulnerable countries accelerate towards a path of sustainable and inclusive growth.”According to the report, the global labour markets have seen an uneven recovery from the pandemic crisis. In developed economies, labour markets have remained resilient despite a slowdown in growth. However, in many developing countries, particularly in Western Asia and Africa, key employment indicators, including unemployment rates, are yet to return to pre- pandemic levels. The global gender employment gap remains high, and gender pay gaps not only persist but have even widened in some occupations.

In November, 2023, a delegation from the US Peace Council traveled to China for meetings at the invitation of the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament. Ajamu Baraka, who participated in that delegation, speaks with Clearing the FOG about what he witnessed and the contrasts between US/Western and Chinese approaches to development, diplomacy and global security. He also discusses the broader conflicts in the world, particularly in Western Asia, the fall of US hegemony, the black radical tradition's definition of peace and the Peoples-Centered Human Rights Framework. Baraka advises us to understand the gravity of the many crises we face and to take action to build a peaceful and dignified society. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

This event launched 'Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region' edited by Hamza Hamouchene and Katie Sandwell, published by Pluto Press. The Arab region is a focus of world politics, with authoritarian regimes, significant fossil fuel reserves and histories of colonialism and imperialism. It is also the site of potentially immense green energy resources. The writers in this collection explore a region ripe for energy transition, but held back by resource-grabbing and (neo)colonial agendas. They show the importance of fighting for a just energy transition and climate justice - exposing policies and practices that protect global and local political elites, multinational corporations and military regimes. Covering a wide range of countries from Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria and Tunisia to Egypt, Sudan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestine, this book challenges Eurocentrism and highlights instead a class-conscious approach to climate justice that is necessary for our survival. Meet the speakers Hamza Hamouchene is Programme Coordinator for North Africa at the Transnational Institute (TNI). He is a London-based Algerian researcher-activist, commentator and a founding member of Algeria Solidarity Campaign (ASC), and Environmental Justice North Africa (EJNA). He is the author/editor of two books: 'The Struggle for Energy Democracy in the Maghreb' (2017) and 'The Coming Revolution to North Africa: The Struggle for Climate Justice' (2015). Katie Sandwell is Programme Coordinator at the Transnational Institute (TNI). She coordinates and supports work at TNI on a range of issues related to climate, environmental and agrarian justice; public alternatives; energy democracy; land and territories; fair trade medicinal plants; agroecology and food sovereignty. Michael Mason is Director of the Middle East Centre. At LSE, he is also Professor of Environmental Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment and an Associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. He is interested in ecological politics and governance as applied to questions of accountability, security and sovereignty. This research addresses both global environmental politics and regional environmental change in Western Asia/the Middle East.

This week we talk about renewables, open-pit mines, and the Bronze Age.We also discuss the Cobre mine, First Quantum, and environmentalism.Recommended Book: The Possibility of Life by Jaime GreenTranscriptDepending on whose numbers you use, and where you choose to place your chronological brackets, the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, began around 5,000 BCE, around 7,000 years ago, with the smelting of copper at high temperatures.The oldest confirmed and dated site relevant to the beginning of this age is in Serbia, though this capability seems to have been developed, independently, at various places around the world within a few thousand years of each other, including China, North America, in the Great Lakes region, and in what is today Pakistan, as well, among other locations.The process of smelting copper that was practiced in Eurasia, in what we might today call Central or Eastern Europe and Western Asia, slowly moved the continent out of the Neolithic period, which was largely defined by humanity's construction of organized settlements, widespread adoption of agriculture and animal domestication, and large-scale pivot away from nomadic, hunter-gatherer-style ways of living.Folks at that time were also getting a lot of mileage out of early ceramics and stone tools, alongside all sorts of ornaments and artworks made of these and other materials that required skill and some level of technology to use, but which didn't require metallurgy.Humans were still using a lot of stone tools during this period, then, but started to include heat-worked copper elements into their tools, as well.So the Copper Age saw the development of very basic metallurgy by many interconnected groups throughout this part of the world, and though some early writers on the subject grouped the use of copper and bronze together, defining a much larger period as the Bronze Age in an undifferentiated way, modern scholarship on the matter, beginning in the late 19th-century, breaks them apart into the earlier Copper and subsequent Bronze Ages because the manipulation and use, and often then the heavy reliance on copper tended to segue a society, eventually, toward bronze, the latter being more difficult to wield, and the former generally serving as a transitional sort of technology.And that's because copper is one of the rare metals that naturally occurs in a usable form in the Earth: so folks were using copper for a variety of purposes as far back as 8,000 BCE-ish, but we tend to use the smelting of copper as a delineation for the eponymous age, because that's when humans started to really work it, having become capable of building the technologies required to reach the requisite heat levels, and to control the metal and shape it, rather than simply finding it in its raw form and using chunks or slivers of it for decoration or weaponry-related purposes.Bronze is an alloy consisting of copper and tin, and the proper melding of these two metals makes the resulting substance, bronze, a lot more durable, resistant to environmental wear, and more capable of holding its shape: that also means it's a lot more difficult to work, if you want to make things out of it, but it also made things like armor and sword edges dramatically more effective, which is why when civilizations learned how to work it and built the infrastructure necessary to do so on scale, they tended to do pretty well, in terms of military victories and economic competition, compared to their bronze-less neighbors.Copper, though in some ways replaced by its alloys, like bronze, for many use-cases throughout history, has continued to be incredibly useful for a broad range of purposes, and what I'd like to talk about today is the closure of a copper mine in Panama, and the predicted global copper shortage we may soon face.—In the latter-half of 2022, the International Copper Study Group, or ICSG, reported that they expected a copper surplus of around 155,000 tonnes on the global market in 2023.That would represent a small surplus, as about 26 million tonnes of copper land on the international market each year, but a surplus of any kind would have been notable, following a long period of deficits, largely due to a huge amount of growth and construction throughout China, and a failure of international copper mines to produce as much marketable metal as they're theoretically capable of producing.The ICSG updated their expectation in early 2023, changing their official expected figure from a surplus of 155,000 to a deficit of 114,000 tonnes, and that's following a deficit of 431,000 tonnes in 2022.The upside of which is that the world has been demanding more copper than has been produced for a while now, and while current deficits are low compared to the record-high deficit of about 1 million tonnes in 2014, some prognosticators are saying we could see a deficit of somewhere between 1.5 million to 9.9 million tonnes by 2035, depending on how a collection of variables play out in the coming years.One major variable is how expansively and aggressively the world's governments and companies decide to invest in and deploy new, renewable energy-centric technologies and accompanying infrastructure.Copper is fundamental to the production of solar panels, electric vehicles, battery storage technologies, and even the cables that, when strung together, form our electric grids.Because of that funamentalness, copper is generally seen as being an easy bet, in terms of production investment, because it's so necessary for development and growth and building things, that—using existing technologies and systems and methods, at least—we'll always need more of it.And there is investment in copper projects around the world, including a slew of recent takeovers, like the April 2023 approval for BHP Group to buy OZ Minerals for nearly $6.4 billion, and the attempt by Swiss multinational Glencore to buy-out Canadian-owned Teck Resources for around $23 billion, which failed, but that eventually led to a separate deal for Glencore to buy Teck's steelmaking-grade coal business for around $9 billion; so Teck held on to their copper business in that deal, but that more than $20 billion price tag gives you a sense of how big this market is, and how competitive it's getting.The issue, though, is that while there's interest in this industry, and a lot of growth potential more or less baked into the way the world is going, with so many new renewables being deployed and grid systems needing to be upgraded essentially everywhere to account for more transmission of larger volumes of electricity to more locations, there's still a lack of sufficient mined copper—growth in mining volume has sputtered, and some analysts have suggested that with copper as cheap as it is, there's less appetite to invest in that side of the industry; as of September 2023, the average price of a key grade of copper was just over $8,500 per tonne, and some analysts have said the price needs to be something like $15,000 per tonne, nearly double that, in order to justify the necessary investment in mining volume capacity.Thus, we're at a moment in which we're already short of copper, we're expected to, globally, need a lot more of it very soon, but the price isn't high enough to justify expanding output, and that means we could run up against a shortage before the price reaches the point it needs to be at, which may then compound the issue for several years, until that new capacity can be built-out and come online, at which point we may be way behind on this transition, but also possibly hurting across other endeavors, as well, like making repairs to infrastructure, building new buildings, and even expanding access to fundamental services like telecommunications, because all of these things require a substantial amount of copper, which could become quite expensive for a while, if a balance isn't established, soon.That potential for a global shortage and concomitant price increase spiral is part of why news out of Panama, regarding a copper mine called the Cobre mine, is so unwelcome to many market watchers.The Cobre mine, located about 75 miles or 120 km west of Panama City and just shy of the Caribbean coast, is a huge open-pit copper mine that spans about 53 square miles or around 138 square km, and, according to many environmentalists, is severely damaging to local ecosystems, including the jungle area where it's located, and it substantially depletes local water supplies.The mine also accounts for about 1% of global copper output, somewhere between 3.5-5% of Panama's total GDP, and employs something like 8,000 people directly, and tens of thousands more, indirectly.A Canadian company called First Quantum bought the land in 2013 and started building it in 2014, and it then began operation in 2019.A concession for the land had been granted to another company by the government, and that concession was confirmed with the passing of a law in 1997.A lawsuit was brought to the country's Supreme Court in 2009, the idea being that the concession was illegal because there hadn't been a public tender on the matter—no bidding process, basically—so the concession should be deemed illegal as the process of granting it was maybe corrupt.In 2017, the Supreme Court agreed with that claim, but in 2019 when the government attempted, unsuccessfully, to basically just give a new concession similar to the old one, to make the mine and the company operating it legitimate in the eyes of the law, First Quantum was just beginning to make its first shipments of copper from the mine, and in 2021, when negotiations had finally started up for a new contract, since that 2019 attempt didn't work, the mine was already nearly at full production strength—so the realities on the ground behind all of this legal maneuvering became trickier and tricker, because not only was this company nearing full operational capacity, it was bringing in money for the government, it was employing gobs of people, and it had pretty firmly rooted itself in the region—to the chagrin of many, but also to the benefit of many, because of all that money and employment.The mine ended up closing for two weeks in late 2022, leading up to a decision by the Panamanian congress, which, in October of 2023, approved a new bill that, like the old bill that was declared unconstitutional, would allow First Quantum to keep mining copper in the area, despite the environmental issues inherent in the work they have been doing there, and the alleged corruption and non-constitutionality of the process granting them mining rights.A wave of protestors surged into the streets across the country, blocking roads and shipments and the conduct of normal business, and while there were a few skirmishes where police hit protestors with tear gas, these protests remained mostly peaceful.Protestors said they didn't think it was constitutional to approve the mine the way the government did, and that it seemed as if the president was secretively pushing something he wanted to get done, despite the contract—like its predecessor—not being valid.Then, in late November 2023, the Panamanian government ordered the mine closed, following the Supreme Court's ruling that, yes, this new bill granting the mining company concessions wasn't legal, either.We're now entering a period of uncertainty in regards to the mine's future, as there's a chance international arbiters will decide that First Quantum should receive a huge payout for their troubles and investments, or, if things were to go a different direction and they were to negotiate a new, constitutionally allowable contract, allowing the mine to start back up in some capacity, things could still be tricky, as the mine has lost around half its global market share since those huge protests began back in October.There's also a chance the Panamanian government could nationalize the mine, or that the mine will simply close forever, though that still leaves questions about what will happen to the surrounding area, much of which has been deforested or otherwise harmed by the size and open pit nature of the mine.This issue has become a big deal in Panama, as it touches on some touchy subjects, like alleged corruption by politicians—it was assumed by many that the president and his government were behaving corruptly in this matter, because the payout the government would receive from the Canadian mining company was considered to be quite small, compared to what the company would take—but also environmentalist issues, which have become increasingly vital at a moment in which much of the wealthy world is attempting to shift their raw material needs, especially those that come with environmental damage, overseas.And some poorer nations are attempting to fight that shift, but with mixed results, as in some cases those raw materials provide them with much of their export-related wealth, as is the case in Panama, where something like 80% of its exports reportedly came from this mine.There are also issues of international concern here, though, because of those aforementioned global copper needs and how the surge of investment in renewables and accompanying infrastructure and technologies require a lot of raw materials like copper, but also lithium, cobalt, and other such metals and elements.The conflict, then, is that there's still an imbalance here, as although some nations might be able to flip the switch on mining some of these newly desirable materials and selling them to wealthier nations, become something like the next-stage of a petro-state, there are also valid concerns related to the killing-off of local ecosystems and flora and fauna, in pursuit of what amounts, through the eyes of some, to a quick buck.Is it worth attaining some amount of money if you have to trade the environmental well-being of your country to do so?That's the question Panama has asked itself, and it has apparently decided in favor of its environment, though this is a question many other people in many other places are asking themselves right now, too, and their answers will further inform how this global transition plays out, and what sorts of trade-offs will or will not be made in the process.Show Noteshttps://apnews.com/article/panama-mining-canada-first-quantum-mineral-arbitration-6530dceccfb60fb9a06bc3136c04d2cchttps://apnews.com/article/panama-mine-copper-protest-environment-economy-6e893c48311540eeb81ce35173b9f558https://apnews.com/article/panama-copper-mine-supreme-court-canadian-629d8a7838f23cc4ed845a1b3c7a2941https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/panamas-supreme-court-rules-against-first-quantum-mine-bab0cfa2https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67565315https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobre_mine,_Panamahttps://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/11/30/panama-celebrates-court-order-to-cancel-mine-even-as-business-is-hithttps://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadian-owned-mine-will-begin-closure-in-panama-after-contract-deemed-unconstitutional-1.6668760https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/top-panama-court-rules-first-quantum-mining-contract-unconstitutional-2023-11-28/https://www.wsj.com/articles/copper-shortage-threatens-green-transition-620df1e5https://www.eetimes.com/copper-may-be-the-next-real-shortage/https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/coppers-anticipated-supply-surplus-is-proving-elusive-2023-05-10/https://about.bnef.com/blog/copper-prices-may-jump-20-by-2027-as-supply-deficit-rises/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcolithic This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Recently, an international delegation traveled to Cairo, Egypt to visit the Rafah border crossing and pressure the United States to allow aid to be brought into Gaza. Hundreds of trucks carrying aid are lined up at the border waiting for permission to enter. Clearing the FOG spoke with Sara Flounders, one of the members of the delegation, about the current situation in Gaza, the role of the United States in the genocide of Palestinians, how the current conflict is impacting the United States' drive to protect its hegemony and the blowback in Western Asia. Flounders also discusses the incredible solidarity across the world with Palestine and the numerous creative actions in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

This panel was an opportunity for students to hear about different pathways into Middle East related fields. Meet the speakers: Marwa Baabbad is Director of the Yemen Policy Centre. She is a researcher and development consultant with over ten years of experience working in the fields of community engagement, gender, peace and security, and youth political inclusion. Marwa was Director of the Oxford Research Group (ORG) Strategic Peacebuilding Programme between 2018-2020. There, she led the delivery of a Track-II project that fed into the United Nations-led Yemen peace process. Arda Bilgen is a Research Officer at the LSE Middle East Centre. His work mainly focuses on water politics, transboundary water resources management, and hydraulic infrastructure development. Arda holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Bonn, an MA in International Affairs/International Security Studies from the George Washington University, and a BA in International Relations from Bilkent University. Before joining LSE, he worked as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sussex, and as a Lecturer at Clark University. Jack Sproson is a Member of Guernica 37 Chambers. He specialises in Public/Private International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law. Jack has extensive expertise in humanitarian and legal issues pertaining to conflict- and climate-related insecurity and displacement in Africa and the Middle East, most recently as lead counsel for a major project advocating for the continuation of UN cross-border humanitarian access in Syria. Michael Mason is Director of the Middle East Centre. At LSE, he is also Professor of Environmental Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment and an Associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. He is interested in ecological politics and governance as applied to questions of accountability, security and sovereignty. This research addresses both global environmental politics and regional environmental change in Western Asia/the Middle East.

In this thought-provoking episode of The Chris Abraham Show, Chris embarks on a deep and multifaceted exploration of contemporary geopolitical issues, touching on themes of identity politics, the dynamics of international conflicts, and the role of narrative in shaping public perception. As Chris navigates through Arlington County and prepares for a meetup at Lyon Hall, he delves into various topics, offering personal insights and historical perspectives. Glossary of Terms: Zionism: A movement for the re-establishment, development, and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. Schrodinger's Cat: A thought experiment in quantum mechanics illustrating the concept of superposition. Ethnocentrism: The evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture. Two-State Solution: A proposed solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict envisioning two separate states for Israelis and Palestinians. Apartheid: A policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race, notably in South Africa from 1948-1994. DMZ (Demilitarized Zone): A region on which military forces or operations are prohibited. Iron Dome: A mobile all-weather air defense system developed by Israel, designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): An intergovernmental military alliance between 30 North American and European countries, established in 1949. Oppression Olympics: A term used to describe a complex phenomenon where groups compete to prove themselves as the most marginalized or victimized. Magha Republicans: Refers to supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump, associated with the slogan "Make America Great Again." Victimhood: The state of being a victim, especially as a concept in social and political contexts where certain groups claim to be victims of historical or societal injustices. Ethnic Cleansing: The systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, often involving violence and terror. First World Fifth Generation Weaponry: Advanced military technology typically used by developed, industrialized nations, representing the latest generation of warfare capabilities. January 6th: Refers to the events of January 6, 2021, when a group of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol. Tel Aviv: The second most populous city in Israel, known for its modernity and being a financial hub. Gaza: A small region on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, a significant part of the Israel-Palestine conflict. West Bank: A landlocked territory near the Mediterranean coast of Western Asia, forming the bulk of the Palestinian territories. Nuclear State: A nation that possesses nuclear weapons and has the capability to use them. Ethnicity: Socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural, or national experiences. Two-Spirit: A modern, pan-Indian, umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender ceremonial and social role in their cultures. Intersectionality: A theoretical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Humanism: An outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chrisabraham/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chrisabraham/support

When most people think of Asia, the countries that come to mind aren't likely to be those we're about to discuss today. Located in Western Asia, on the border of Eastern Europe, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan are countries most westerners are largely unfamiliar with at all. That's all the more reason to learn a bit about them, as each has unique cultures, history, and tourist attractions that make them fascinating destinations. Today, show co-host Scott Coates will share his experience traveling through these interesting West Asian nations.

Public debt across the Middle East and North Africa — or MENA — region is soaring. While debt vulnerability is a global phenomenon, recent data shows four MENA economies — Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan — are among the emerging markets most vulnerable to a debt crisis. In a special podcast episode, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by Niranjan Sarangi, a senior economic affairs officer in the shared economic prosperity cluster at the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, and Sarah Saadoun, a senior researcher working on poverty and inequality at Human Rights Watch, for an in-depth discussion on the politics of economic reform in the MENA region. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco, they discuss what's behind the current debt situation, how it's affecting ordinary people's lives, the impact of IFI programs on the expansion of social protection systems, and the region's evolving climate finance needs. This episode of This Week in Global Development is sponsored by Open Society Foundations.

Today's special guest is the singer-songwriter Katie Melua. Many of you will know Katie from her chart-topping hits like "Nine Million Bicycles" and "The Closest Thing to Crazy”. Over the last twenty years, her soulful voice has captivated audiences all around the world, selling over 11 million albums worldwide, making her one of the most successful British female artists of all time.Katie was born in Georgia, - a country found at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe - which was then part of the Soviet Union, and it's a huge feature of her travel diaries today. If it's a place that's been on your travel radar, you'll get some great tips for a future trip. Katie spent her early childhood living in Georgia before moving to the UK, when she was eight years old. Her passion for music led her to enrol at the famous BRIT school, alongside alumni like Adele and Amy Winehouse. She was discovered by songwriter and producer Mike Batt, and rocketed to stardom soon after.Her success has of course meant she has travelled much of the world several times over on tour, and she shares with us some of the most extraordinary destinations she has put on a show, including the deepest concert ever held, 303 meters below sea level in a Norwegian fjord.So sit back, relax, and join us on this journey as we explore the life and travels of Katie Melua.Destination Recap:Batumi, Georgia Moscow, RussiaTbilisi, Georgia Belfast, Northern Ireland East Prawle, Devon, EnglandMargate, Kent, England Deal, Kent, EnglandBroadstairs, Kent, England Mt Kazbegi, Georgia Rooms Hotel, KazbegiNorwayTresco, Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, EnglandBrazilKatie Melua's ninth studio album, Love + Money, is out now, and she heads out on a UK + EU tour in April and May. With thanks to today's sponsor...Jumeirah Beach Hotel - Visit jumeirah.com/JBHEscapes today, and book your Exceptional Escape to Dubai. Jumeirah Beach Hotels' Exceptional Jumeirah Escapes Offer gives up to 20% savings when you stay before 30 September 2023, with unlimited Wild Wadi Waterpark access, flexible cancellation and USD 200 credit when staying in an Ocean Club Room, Suite, or Beit Al Bahar Royal Villa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quizmasters Lee and Marc meet for a trivia quiz with topics including Pop Culture, Food, World History, Geometry, Baking Terms, F1 Racing, Aviation, Literature and more! Round One PIZZA - According to mobile pizza ordering app Slice, what ingredient saw the largest increase in orders by users in 2022 (up 8.9% from 2021)? GEOMETRY - How many degrees is each angle in an equilateral triangle? POP CULTURE - Which pop culture icons 1969 funeral saw over 20,000 mourners in attendance? MOVIES - Sharing a name with a first lady, what was the nickname of the Ford Mustang featured in the 1974 film Gone In Sixty Seconds? BAKING TERMS - What is the baking term for when (due to an over-mixed or over-risen dough or batter) a large air gap is produced between the crust and crumb of a baked good? FORMULA 1 - The first F1 race this season took place in what island country in Western Asia and is comprised of a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands? Round Two VOCABULARY - If something is coriaceous, it resembles or has the texture of what material? WORLD HISTORY - Supported by 172 countries, in which decade did the United Nations first propose promoting a temporary stoppage of war on a planetary scale (called a "global ceasefire")? BOARD GAMES - How many triangles are on a backgammon board? POP CULTURE - In 2007, Nicolas Cage bought a house in Rhode Island during a stop on his quest for locating what treasure? AVIATION - U.S. Aviator Lawrence Burst Sperry who passed away in 1923 has attracted suggestions of being the founder of the mile high club due to his invention of what flight aid? FARMING - Popular in both industrial and domestic settings, what is the term for the activity of rearing worms to be used in composting? Rate My Question BEER - While at University in 1954, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, set a Guinness World Record for drinking what imperial measurement of beer in 11 seconds? Final Questions TECHNOLOGY - "The White Dot" is a technological phenomenon in televisions manufactured from 1940's-70's which displays a lingering dot on the screen for up to a minute and is caused by the discharge of what technological component? LITERATURE - What same three words are in the titles of biographical books about Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, Ben Hogan, Benjamin Franklin, Condoleezza Rice and Dr. Spock? Upcoming LIVE Know Nonsense Trivia Challenges March 29nd, 2023 - Know Nonsense Challenge - Point Ybel Brewing Co. - 7:30 pm EST March 30rd, 2023 - Know Nonsense Trivia Challenge - Ollie's Pub Records and Beer - 7:30 pm EST April 15th, 2023 - JAMES BOND TRIVIA - Know Nonsense Challenge - Point Ybel Brewing Co. - 7:30 pm EST You can find out more information about that and all of our live events online at KnowNonsenseTrivia.com All of the Know Nonsense events are free to play and you can win prizes after every round. Thank you Thanks to our supporters on Patreon. Thank you, Quizdaddies – Gil, Tim, Tommy, Adam, Brandon, Blake, Spencer Thank you, Team Captains – Kristin & Fletcher, Aaron, Matthew, David Holbrook, Lydia, Rick G, Skyler, Hayden Thank you, Proverbial Lightkeepers – Elyse, Kaitlynn, Frank, Trent, Nina, Justin, Katie, Ryan, Robb, Captain Nick, Grant, Ian, Tim Gomez, Rachael, Moo, Rikki, Nabeel, Jon Lewis, Adam, Lisa, Spencer, Hank, Justin P., Cooper, Sarah, Karly, Lucas, Mike K., Cole, Adam, Caitlyn H, Sam, Spencer, Stephen, Cameron, Clay, JB, Joshua, James, Paul Thank you, Rumplesnailtskins – Mike J., Mike C., Efren, Steven, Kenya, Dallas, Issa, Paige, Allison, Kevin & Sara, Alex, Loren, MJ, HBomb, Aaron, Laurel, FoxenV, Sarah, Edsicalz, Megan, brandon, Chris, Alec, Sai, Tim, Andrea, Ian, Aunt Kiki, Clay, Littlestoflambs, Seth, Bill, Marc P., Holgast, Nora, Joe If you'd like to support the podcast and gain access to bonus content, please visit http://theknowno.com and click "Support."

US aggression toward China is escalating and China is shedding its usual restraint to more clearly call out this aggression and warn the US not to overstep its red lines. Clearing the FOG speaks with K. J. Noh, an activist, journalist and scholar on the geopolitics of the Asian continent. He discusses the renewed belligerence of South Korea under the President Yoon Suk-yeol, the increasing militarization of Japan, shifting alliances in Western Asia and how China, including Taiwan, is responding. Noh also speaks about efforts in the United States to prepare for a war against China and how that is increasing violence against Asian Americans, as well as what we can do to prevent what would be a catastrophic conflict. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

The Middle East is drowning in anti-Iran propaganda emanating from Western, Gulf and oligarch-funded outlets that seek to turn the populations in the region against Iran and other institutions deemed to be “backed by Iran.” In Lebanon this plays out in a sectarian narrative that portrays Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy and depicts Shias as agents of an Iranian occupation of the country. This pattern has also been replicated in neighboring countries in an attempt to turn people against the regional forces that challenge U.S. imperialism. To understand the phenomenon, Rania Khalek was joined by Denijal Jegic, a professor of communication at Lebanese American University and author of a forthcoming research paper titled, “An Iranian Occupation of Lebanon: The imperialist media discourse on Western Asia.”You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW 

Developments in new technology such as DNA sequencing have transformed our understanding of the Neanderthals, one of a group of archaic humans who occupied Europe, the Middle East and Western Asia more than 300,000 years ago. First identified by fossil remains in 1856 in a German quarry, the Neanderthals led an extremely physical existence as hunter-gatherers. They were stronger than us, adaptable as a species to huge variations in climate, with brains as large as ours and sophisticated ways of creating tools. Many of us carry some of the DNA of Neanderthals, thanks to interbreeding with homo sapiens. Although the Neanderthals today are no longer with us, their story has a lot to tell us about ourselves and our future survival on the planet. Rajan Datar is joined by Janet Kelso, a computational biologist and Group Leader of the Minerva Research Group for Bioinformatics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. She specialises in the analysis of DNA sequencing of ancient people such as Neanderthals; Katerina Harvati, the Senckenberg Professor for Paleoanthropology and Director of the Institute for Archaeological Sciences at the University of Tübingen. Her work focuses on the origins of modern humans and Neanderthal evolution; and archaeologist and writer Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. Her award-winning book Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art was published in 2020. Produced by Fiona Clampin for the BBC World Service (Image: Neanderthal Female, re-created by artists Andrie and Alfons Kennis. Photo: Joe McNally/Getty Images)

CAC feature episodes are back after a 2 year hiatus! In our 11th feature production - we dive into the science of the Cannabis lifecycle. We start with looking at the evolutionary history of Cannabis before we switch gears and look at how Cannabis is cultivated, dried and cured. We dive into the science involved in many of the changes Cannabis undergoes in its journey to a consumer's grinder. I hope you enjoy our return to feature episodes - I have many more planned! If you're curious about Cannabis, visit www.cacpodcast.com and check out more podcast episodes and educational content including courses, books, and more! Stay curious and take it easy! Show Notes / Transcription: "It's a plant that goes by many names. Some call it hemp. Some call it marijuana. Call it what you will, it's cannabis. And it's got a lot of people curious. But what do you really know about the Cannabis plant and how it makes its way to your grinder? In this episode we will be taking things back to their roots, as we explore the science of the Cannabis plant's lifecycle. So get ready to get dirty as we meet the Cannabis plant! [INTRO] These days Cannabis is big business. It wasn't that long ago that Cannabis was almost an entirely underground industry. Very few people were willing to talk openly about it, and those that did often had to disguise their identities to do so. Today Cannabis is legal in some form or another in most states in the United States as well as Canada, Mexico and many other countries around the world. More people are using Cannabis than ever before. Chances are, if you are listening to this podcast, there is a strong possibility you are one of these people. But what do you really know about how that little Cannabis bud in your child-resistant pop top container got there. Every Cannabis flower has a story to tell. In this episode we are going to follow the lifecycle of a Cannabis plant from early evolution, to seed all the way to consumption and chart out many of the fascinating bits of science that are involved along the way. And to guide our curious quest, we will focus on a few key questions: One, what is Cannabis and how did it get here? Where does it fit in the big kingdom of plants? Two, How does a harvested Cannabis plant turn into the perfectly manicured, aromatic, resinous buds that you might find at a dispensary? Three, How does the chemistry of Cannabis change over time from the moment it is harvested to the moment it reaches the hands of a consumer? And now, without further ado, let's get started! So, what is Cannabis? Cannabis is a genus - which is one rank above species - and it belongs to the Cannabaceae family, which includes up to 9 or 10 other genera, like Humulus, which you are already familiar with if you are a beer drinker, because Humulus lupus, or hops, is commonly used to flavor beer.[1] Recent research examining fossilized pollen from around the world has indicated that Cannabis and Humulus split from the same ancient ancestor approximately 30 million years ago.[2] The Cannabis plant is thought to have really started is evolutionary journey somewhere around the Tibetan Plateau in Asia.[3] From there it moved around, following humans wherever we went, traveling from Western Asia up into Eastern Europe[4], back down into Asia, West into Africa and Western Europe. Then on to South America, Atlantic and Pacific Islands and finally North America. Cannabis is thought to be one of the earliest ethnobotanical plants that humans have relied on for food, materials, and medicines. The seeds have been eaten for their nutritional value for thousands of years. There are reports of Cannabis being used for religious and recreational purposes going back at least five thousand years ago.[5] [6] Because of its value as a multi-functional botanical, humans throughout history have stewarded the Cannabis plant. In each of the places where Cannabis has travel...

Top Stories- Two officer-involved shootings happening in a span of just 24 hours, one in East Bakersfield and another in the area of Butte Street and Kern Street- We're also following breaking news out of a destructive and deadly earthquake out of Western Asia

 Join Lucas and Miranda as they continue their stroll around the JORVIK Viking Centre. This time they're discussing the new items on display in the JORVIK Viking Centre galleries, generously on loan from the British Museum. These artefacts display the extensive trade networks of the Vikings, which connected the city of Jorvik to the trading centres of Western Asia and the Mediterranean. For our past Gallery Walk Throughs check out:Episode 28 - The JORVIK Viking Centre Gets the Silverdale Hoard with Gareth WilliamsEpisode 39 - JORVIK Viking Centre Gallery Walk Through: Travel and TradeEpisode 57 - JORVIK Viking Centre Gallery Walk Through: SkeletonsAnd hit subscribe so you don't miss all of our Norse Gods and Goddess season in February for the JORVIK Viking Festival!Listen and enjoy, and please consider leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen!

In this episode of Habits of the Few, Mo Naboulsi dives into the history and significance of the Iranian Revolution. With a focus on the habits of the few, Mo explores what made the Iranian people rise up against their government and how this event has shaped the modern world. Listen as we discuss the motivations of the Iranian Revolution and how it has influenced the world today. From geopolitics to human rights, this episode is packed with information that will help you understand the significance of Iran's Revolution. Don't miss it! In the aftermath of a hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi's intensified efforts to enforce Iran's Islamic laws, even more protests have taken place, this time in the streets of Tehran. The issue at hand is one that has been simmering for decades, but previous reformist leaders' promises to make changes have done nothing to stop it: women are tired of being subjugated by religious law. In Iran, the most fundamental questions about what makes a society work continue to be debated. While core human rights are being violated, many Iranians want to see change to their government's Islamic policies. --- The Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia that is governed by a theocratic Islamic republic. The government is based on the principles of the 1979 revolution, which overthrew the previous monarchy and established an Islamic republic. The supreme leader of Iran is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate political and religious authority in the country. The President of Iran is responsible for the administration of the country and is elected by the people. The legal system in Iran is based on Islamic law, also known as Shariah law, which is derived from the teachings of the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that all laws and regulations must be consistent with Islamic principles. The government of Iran is known for its strict adherence to Islamic principles and its strict control over many aspects of society, including the media, education, and personal behavior. The government has been criticized by some for its human rights record, including its treatment of women, minorities, and political dissidents. However, it is supported by many others, who view it as a guardian of the country's Islamic identity and values. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/habitsofthefew/message

It's Friday, December 30th, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com) Environmentalists hurting Azerbaijan people On Monday, December 12th, environmental activists in Azerbaijan setup tents blocking the only road connecting Karabakh to the outside world, reports international Christian Concern. Azerbaijan is located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. In addition, they shut down the gas lines for four days which caused schools to temporarily close and the heat to be shut off in homes. Russia launched largest aerial assault on Thursday Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were urged to head to air raid shelters early on Friday as sirens wailed across the city, a day after Russia carried out the biggest aerial assault since it started the war in February, reports Reuters. In a video address on Thursday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said air commands in central, southern, eastern and western Ukraine repelled 54 Russian missiles and 11 drones. More than 18 residential buildings and 10 critical infrastructure installations were destroyed in the latest attacks. Waves of Russian air strikes in recent months, targeting energy infrastructure, have left millions without power and heating in often freezing temperatures. Epoch Times uncovers voting issues in Houston and Dallas Texas Secretary of State John Scott's office has released the final phase of its 2020 general election audit of Collin, Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant Counties, reports The Epoch Times. The audit released on Monday showed the most serious issues occurred in two Democrat areas, Harris County -- including Houston, followed by Dallas, both of which featured “phantom voters.” By contrast, the two largest Republican-controlled counties, Tarrant County administered a “quality, transparent election” with minor findings, and Collin County “proved to be the model of how to run elections in Texas.” (pdf) Massachusetts mom gets city to fly “nuclear family” flag for a week When it comes to the concept of “inclusivity,” the sexual perversion movement is ruthlessly hypocritical: only their message may be included. But now conservative Christians are pushing back. In early November 2022, Jessica Jacobson – a mother in Fitchburg, Massachusetts – wanted to discuss how to deal with the sexual perversion indoctrination in the schools, reports MassResistance. Jessica noticed that every year the city flies the LHBT rainbow “pride” flag in a city park for a week. She reasoned that it would only be fair that they also fly a “nuclear family” flag, celebrating heterosexuality, for a week. So, Jessica spoke with Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DeNatale. She explained to him that the non-discrimination laws required both sides of an issue to be allowed. She also reminded the mayor that his oath of office requires him to be “impartial” toward the citizens of Fitchburg. There is also the recent 9-0 US Supreme Court decision, Shurtleff v. City of Boston, requiring Boston to be impartial in allowing flags. Thus, the nuclear family flag – celebrating heterosexuality -- should also be allowed to fly for a week in the same location in Fitchburg. Surprisingly, the Mayor was very supportive of the idea. He agreed that if one group in the community was represented, other members of the community should also be represented. It was determined that the nuclear family flag would be raised in the city's Riverfront Park on Dec. 21 and fly there until Dec. 28. To his credit, Mayor DeNatale participated in the nuclear family flag-raising ceremony as you can see in his tweet. Take a moment to thank him by email through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com or by calling 978-829-1801. Not surprisingly, the sexual perversion activists were livid, reports Boston 25 News. Jessica composed a one-page statement entitled, “Equality is what this flag raising is all about.” It describes what support for the nuclear family means, the demands for equal representation, and how churches are encouraged to pray for nuclear families in these troubled times. Psalm 127:3 says, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him.” 6 notables Christians who died in 2022 The Christian Post reports that there were six notable Christians who died in 2022. They include: Ray Bentley, an author, radio broadcaster and pastor, who helped to found the Maranatha Chapel of California, an influential Evangelical megachurch, who died of complications from COVID-19 at age 64. Abune Antonios, the former leader of the Orthodox Church in Eritrea, Africa, died after spending 15 years in detention as a prisoner of conscience for resisting the Eritrean government's interference in church affairs. He was 94. Dede Robertson, the wife of televangelist Pat Robertson, who was involved in the leadership of both Regent University and the Christian Broadcasting Network. She died at age 94. Frederick Buechner (pronounced BEEK-ner) a Presbyterian theologian, public speaker, minister, World War II veteran and author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, died at the age of 96. Gordon Fee, a theologian, distinguished professor, Bible translator, and bestselling author who was considered an expert on the study of the Holy Spirit, died at age 88. Canadian Pastor Leon Fontaine, who led the multisite Springs Church of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and gained recent attention for his opposition to COVID-19 lockdown orders, died at age 59 following a brief battle with an aggressive form of cancer. Ohio Worldview listener gets Kirk Cameron's kids' book in library And finally, Stephanie Burns, a Worldview listener in Sandusky, Ohio emailed me a praise report earlier this week. She said, “I have had success in requesting Kirk Cameron's new children's book, As You Grow, to be purchased at my local public library.  “I will pray for those who are not met with the same reception and kindness to have wisdom to say the right words in those difficult conversations, shining the light of Christ in truth and love, trusting God's Spirit to work through it in some way. “Thank you for The Worldview broadcast!” In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Watch a CBN interview with Kirk Cameron about how 50 “Drag Queen Story Hour” libraries either rejected Cameron's request to read his book there or ignored it altogether.  When threatened with a possible lawsuit, two libraries saw the light. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, December 30th in the year of our Lord 2022. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Tatiana Stupak (piano) started learning the piano at age five, studying at the Special School of the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, and after that, for a further five years, continuing at the Conservatory itself. She is the winner of international music competitions including the Leipzig Bach competition. Tatiana is very well known in Cyprus, having played piano at more than 80 events in the last few years, both as a solo pianist and accompanying other musicians. Since 2018, she has played piano solos at The Big Choir Project concerts. She has developed a second major interest since early 2019: mountaineering! Her goal is to climb the 7 highest mountains of 7 continents. Having had no previous climbing experience, she succeeded in reaching the summit of the highest mountain in Europe (Elbrus) and Africa (Kilimanjaro). Just recently she climbed Mount Damavand, the highest peak in Iran and Western Asia and the highest volcano in Asia She plans next to climb the highest peak in South America, Mount Aconcagua in Argentina while playing music and she is attempting to get in the the Guiness Book of records; she loves adventures of all kinds. For example, in 2018, she took a hot-air balloon flight in Cappadocia; in the summer of 2019, she did her first sky-dive, at Kingsfield Airfield in Cyprus. She also took a trip to frozen Lake Baikal early in 2020, where she played the Russain Gusli instrument. And she leaned free diving in 2020 as well, and proved it, by being filmed playing a piano on the bed of the Mediterranean. She like to combine her musical talents with her adventures, whenever possible. She arranges charity concerts for children and for the church, and brings famous musicians from Russia, for example from the Bolshoi Theatre. She opened the Tatiana Stupak School of Music in 2018, where students can enter for examinations set by the Royal Schools of Music and by Trinity College. Students may also take part in public concerts, to gain experience in performing before audiences. In 2018, Tatiana won awards on being chosen in competition, as Russian Cultural Woman of the Year in Cyprus. In the summer of 2019, having organised fund-raising concerts on several occasions for the Institute of Neurology and Genetics, she was invited to play piano solos at a concert at the Presidential Palace, where President Anastasiades presented her with an award on behalf of the Institute. She has been interviewed many times on Cyprus radio and TV channels. Early in 2020 she was interviewed on the subject of children and music, and the interview was shown on Smile TV; previously she appeared live on TV ONE's charity show, DanSing for You, not as a pianist, but as a dancer. Most recently, she was interviewed by RIK1 TV, and the interview was broadcast in July 2020. Also during 2020, over a period of a few weeks, she made live broadcasts on the Internet, giving illustrated talks about ten classical music composers. Tatiana maintains two YouTube channels: one for herself, and another for her music school. http://tatianastupak.com/biography (http://tatianastupak.com/biography) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPa-fpO17yX0y1aN51Yu_WA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPa-fpO17yX0y1aN51Yu_WA)

The beetle family Phengodidae is known also as glowworm beetles, whose larvae are known as glowworms. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. They occur throughout the New World from extreme southern Canada to Chile. The recently recognized members of the Phengodidae, the Cydistinae, are found in Western Asia. The family Rhagophthalmidae, an Old World group, used to be included in the Phengodidae.

小額贊助支持本節目： https://pay.firstory.me/user/ck7onaujhi4bo0873ousw9pbc 哈囉我是賓狗，一起來聽新聞學英文吧～ 歡迎收聽 pH 值最低的英文教學 podcast！ 最近經過土耳其和聯合國的斡旋 烏俄簽約確保黑海可以送出糧食，解決全球糧荒問題 但才簽完不到 24 小時，俄羅斯又開始轟炸烏克蘭南方港口 根本就是一個毫無誠信可言的國家 黑海無法安全航行，全球就等著糧荒 到底黑海位在哪裡，又為什麼這麼重要呢？ 今天這集，就用三個單字來認識黑海，以及俄羅斯為何這麼想要控制黑海 Let's get started! 現在就來進入正題 1【inland sea 內海】- 名詞片語 The Black Sea is an inland sea located between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. （黑海是個內海，位處東歐及西亞之間） 2【overstated 被誇大的】- 形容詞 The strategic and economic importance of the Black Sea cannot be overstated. （黑海的戰略及經濟重要性是完全不可低估的） 3【buffer 緩衝】- 名詞 For Russia, the Black Sea is a buffer between NATO and itself. （對俄羅斯而言，黑海可以作為其與北約之間的緩衝區） 其他補充： coastal 沿岸的 inland 內陸的 overstate 誇大其詞 inflation 通貨膨脹；通膨 Ukraine 烏克蘭 Russia 俄羅斯 Georgia 喬治亞 Romania 羅馬尼亞 Bulgaria 保加利亞 Turkey 土耳其

This week, we dig into our first dumping – the humble gyoza. In our dumpling taxonomy, the gyoza is a “true dumpling.” We discuss Chinese medicine, the history of Sino-Japanese relations, and how gyoza (or their ancestors) may have been found in tombs in Western Asia. Finally, we argue that dumplings are good for your … Continue reading Dumpling Diaries 2: Memoirs of a Gyoza

[Recording Date: June 21, 2022] It's been nearly a month since our previous Bites episode and so much as happened. On this episode we skip over the Ontario election aftermath and CPC Leadership race to tackle a selection of other stories that have made the press, from the January 6th Committee Hearings, to National Indigenous History Month, by way of guns, and lengthening line ups for service... and so much more, including Canadians Who Make Us Proud. As this is a Bites, we are once again flying without a net, completely unscripted. So, please come and sit with us for a spell. We share information, analysis, and a couple of solid laughs. ________________ Not everyone can do everything. But everyone can do something. Because we believe that Democracy Is Something You Do... Given it is Pride Month, if you have the opportunity, please support the Rainbow Railroad. Rainbow Railroad is a Canadian charitable organization that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals escape violence and persecution in their home countries. In the past, they have helped individuals from the Caribbean, Africa, and Western Asia relocate to safer countries in Europe and North America. If you can help, https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/donate will direct you to their donation page. Donate - Rainbow Railroad DonateDonate to Rainbow Railroad and help save a life. Cookie Duration Description; cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics: 11 months: This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin.www.rainbowrailroad.org ________________ Of course, retweets, shares, gentle corrections, constructive criticism, compliments, tips, requests, bribes to be on the show, and positive reviews (if you think we deserve some stars, please rate us) are always welcome. You can do that via our show's Facebook blog page on via Twitter @TrueEager. And if you really enjoy our podcast, why not subscribe via our Podpage, and tell a friend? Until next time, be kind to, and gentle with, yourselves, Your Eager Beaver __________________ Thank you to our podcast's founding sponsors: * The Peppermaster * The Miss Vee Mysteries from Corvid Moon Publishing * Canadian Tarot Dot Com Artwork credit: Peter Jarvis

Today, we're exploring an agricultural innovation in the state of Qatar in Western Asia. Qatar is a wealthy, densely populated country located on the Northeast coast of the Arabian peninsula and leads the world in liquified natural gas exports. But the country's desert climate is harsh and the agriculture there is challenging. That's where shipping containers, artificial light and vertical farming techniques come into play. Our guest today is horticulturalist Mohamed Hassouna from the Qur-anic Botanic Garden in Qatar. He and his partners at the University of Arizona are developing a shipping container vertical farming model as a way to expand local food production. Interview Summary   So first let's set the stage for our listeners. Could you describe the agricultural challenges in Qatar given the country's dry climate?   Thank you for your introduction. Qatar, as other countries located in the Arabia peninsula and also in the Arabian states, are facing very harsh weather conditions. Particularly in Qatar, the weather here is hot desert weather characterized by sparse precipitations and high summer temperature experienced with high humidity, high solar radiation and poor soil additionally to strong winds. And this limits the agriculture sector to the months of October to April. Every year, this is the agriculture season here from October to April then the temperature is fine and can allow for producing vegetables. Also the land, the Arab land, suitable for agriculture is very limited. The last inventory here in the state estimated that there is only 60,000 hectares available for the agriculture sector. Also, we have a challenge with water. Water scarcity. The agriculture sector here in Qatar consumes 90% of the available water for the state. A big challenge is also that the agriculture sector consume about 36% of the available water in the aquifer. And as I told you, we have very minimum amount of rain every year. It's about 80 millimeters on average, every year. So production of agriculture in Qatar is difficult.   Well, the picture you paint is really striking and I can imagine those challenges. So what role could your Botanic garden play in addressing food security in the country, closing the food security gap for communities, and also attending to the environment?   Yes! The Qur-anic Botanic Garden is an active member in the community development sector in Qatar Foundation. It takes the issue of community awareness and education from school students to housewife to training even professionals to engage in the investment in agriculture. We established at the Qur-anic Botanic Garden an extra curriculum educational program for school students - from early stage to especially secondary schools students - to learn about the challenges of food security in Qatar, and what are the technologies they can learn. Students are leading the future here in Qatar. Without students being aware about the challenges facing the food security and the agriculture production, we cannot guarantee a future outlook of food security. Also the Qur-anic Botanic Garden has been partnered with Qatar Development Bank, and this is the official bank assigned to develop industry like also agriculture sector. So, anyone from Qatar who would like to take a loan to invest in the agriculture sector, we have the mission to train them on the latest technology of horticulture practices. They can use or they can establish greenhouses or they can establish other modern system for a production of vegetables. Either in their homes or in farms outside. Also Qur-anic Botanic Garden established a hotline for household people. There is now community farming in Qatar. People would like to plant their own vegetables in their home. The hotline is answering all their inquiries about seed selections, seedlings, how to prepare soil, how to make pesticides.   So let's talk a little more deeply now about vertical farming. Can you describe what that is?   Vertical farming involves growing crops in controlled indoor environments with precise lab nutrients and temperatures. In vertical farming, plants are stacked in a layers that may reach several storage unit stories - from personal community scale vegetables or herbal growing to vast building for commercial production of a wide range of crops. Due to the pressure for agriculture land, this makes us look to maximization for food production. Model technology like vertical farming is increasingly something we are turning to for greater crop yield.   I'm envisioning in my mind what the vertical farming could look like. And I'm thinking that in order to produce enough food say to feed a population, you need an awful lot of containers and an awful lot of technology to accompany those containers. Can that be done on a large enough scale?   Before we answer this, we need to go through the pro and cons for vertical farming. If we can speak first about advantages of vertical farming, we can say that vertical farming can ensure crop production year round in desert harsh weather regions like Qatar or other countries in the Arabian Peninsula. And also a controlled growing condition in a vertical farm allow production without chemical pesticides used when needed to deal with any problems from insects. Also, because crops in vertical farming are growing under controlled environmental conditions, they are safe from extreme weather events, such as drought, high temperature, severe winds that also we are facing here. Hydroponic growing techniques used in vertical farming use about 70% less of water than normal agriculture. So, growing the crops indoor reduces the use of tractors and other machinery that also produce a lot of CO2 and this is could be a climate friendly industry. So this is some advantage behind vertical farming that can give us strong signal to say yes, vertical farming can feed a lot of people around the world. Especially in the area that have these two main challenges, availability of vertical soil and a scarcity of water.   Oh, it's so interesting to hear you speak about this. So it sounds like you're optimistic that the technologies can continue to develop and that the vertical farming approach could really help contribute to national food security in your country. But so what do you think are the main opportunities there and what do you think the main challenges are?   Thank you for this question, Kelly. Indeed, I'm optimistic about this industry. Cost of land and building for vertical farming is not easy and it's not also available for all countries and for all people. It needs solar isolation, it needs air conditioners. It needs precise lighting. It needs operation computers. So it needs also specific types of nutrients to be introduced in the cycle of production for fertilization. Here, you bring all the inputs of production cycle. In what you add to the water or to directly to the plants. So the cost is high on the energy side also. You use high amount of energy at a time we are calling everyone to reduce the use of energy and avoid production of CO2. Also, you're aware of expansion of organic agriculture everywhere in the world. So, there are now questions about vertical farming certification. How we can certify or how we can consider merging between organic agriculture and vertical farming. As I said, we use all chemical nutrients in vertical farming to provide the plant with sufficient amount of all of other nutrients required for production. In this case, organic agriculture certification cannot be applied. And scientists in USDA and FAO and many other organization are looking to find a way they can provide a product from vertical farming certified under organic agriculture systems. Two points now, the limited number of crop species in vertical farming. Also, you cannot produce these tall plants that you can grow everywhere or creeping plants that grow everywhere in the field, in the natural field. So you are limited with this layers of a production. So mainly you produce leaves and produce and herbal plants. So we have limited number of crops. Still, also pollination. In natural, we have a bees that make pollinations for the production of vegetables, even for fruits, every, everything. But here, we doesn't have a pollination so we need to go with artificial pollination and this also extra cost to have a special type of bees that you need to put inside the glass houses or inside the building you produce in to secure pollination to complete the cycle of production.   Bio   Mohamed Hassouna is a Horticulturist at the Qur'anic Botanic Garden (QBG), a member of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. He joined Qatar Foundation in late 2010. He guides and supervises agricultural laborers, coordinating work schedules and performing evaluations, and prescribes fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other compounds required for plant care and development. And, he contributes to QBG's continual education-based conservation programs targeting the Qatari community, especially in the fields of food security, forestation and plant propagation. He is an alumnus of the Advanced International Training Programme on Plant Breeding & Seed Production and Plant Genetic Resources at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden – Classes of 2008 and 2013. He is finalizing a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Agriculture & Environment and in addition holds a Higher Diploma – Graduate Education – in the same field and a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Sciences & Education, which he gained while studying in Egypt.

Matt, Maddie and Meehan are here with a shorter podcast than usual, but stuffed to the brim with talk about all the board games we've played! Is asymmetric strategy game Crescent Moon the next Root? Is Eric Lang's mythic blockbuster Ankh: Gods of Egypt as good as Blood Rage and Rising Sun? Is Wayfarers of the South Tigris worth putting on your map? How does two-player gem Watergate hold up? Has Maddie finally managed to play noir superhero RPG City of Mist? We answer all these questions, plus several more that nobody asked, then take a quick look at a seriously impressive fan-made The Last of Us board game and the latest tabletop RPG bundle supporting reproductive rights in the US. (Post-show correction to Matt's bad geography: The river Tigris is in Western Asia, not North Africa!)

Abrimos con los tres discos favoritos de Mundofonías del mes de abril del 2022: la francesa Isabelle Courroy, viajando por músicas de la Europa oriental y del Asia occidental; los inclasificables belgas Black Flower, y la música de las calles de Zimbabue, con Gonora Sounds. Continuamos en nuestro satélite sonoro, captando las ondas musicales que viajan de Tel Aviv a Estambul y Londres, de París a El Cairo, de Toronto a Calcuta y La Habana, y de Nueva York a Bamako. We open with the three Mundofonías favorite albums for April 2022: Isabelle Courroy, from France and traveling through the music of Eastern Europe and Western Asia; the unclassifiable Belgians Black Flower, and the music from the streets of Zimbabwe, with Gonora Sounds. We continue on our satellite of sound, capturing the musical waves that travel from Tel Aviv to Istanbul and London, from Paris to Cairo, from Toronto to Kolkata and Havana, and from New York to Bamako. Favoritos de abril April favorites Isabelle Courroy - En descendant de la Mer Noire - Confluence#2: Le chant des sources Black Flower - Blue speck - Magma Gonora Sounds - Kusaziva kufa - Hard times never kill A vista de satélite Satellite view Şatellites - Hudayda - Şatellites Koby Israelite - Michal, the fastest drewer in the (Middle) East - Jacob's dream Les Fils Canouche - Songe et cauchemar - Nagori Toronto Tabla Ensemble - Nine to ten - For the love of tabla Jane Bunnett & Maqueque - Momentum - On firm ground / Tierra firme Voyagers - Danama - Chasing light

In this two part episode, we start by hearing from  Annie Pumpa a Beef Sales Rep and the Beef InFocus Supply Chain Manager in Australia and Fletch Kelly a Key Strategic Account Manager in the Southern Australia Region. These two really crack open the Australia production conversation. We talk controversies, feed availability, what producers need to sustain, and how beef and beef on dairy strategies will continue to change for the future. Annie, Fletch, and other team member's stories are really cool to listen to. Hang on for the ride, this episode is a longer one - but the conversations had so much quality I couldn't stand to edit out any more time than I already had. Segment Two follows with a U.S and Californian native, Ryan Person. Having lived in Australia for over seven years, the Texas A&M grad's insights into how he applied what he learned in Australian production to his cattle operation is quite a story. Person works in the international meat trade and is currently a beef production professor at Fresno State. We talk the realities of California cattle production, how historically we've changed types and kinds of cattle, and what he hopes to see for the future of the industry and his up and coming students going into the industry. Towards the end of the episode, we talk exports in China, South America, India, Indonesia, Western Asia, and the US. You won't want to miss it! 

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network Show Name: Speaking for the SilencedEpisode 4: Child Soldiers: Part 2Tune into this week's episode of #SpeakingfortheSilenced!You are listening to Speaking for the Silenced podcast with your host(s) Jacqueline Sun.In this episode of Speaking for the Silenced, we will finish a two-part segment discussing child soldiers and their roles in wars. This week's episode will focus on the country of Yemen specifically, a place infamous for their frequent employment of children in fighting. Yemen is a desert country in Western Asia.Segment 1: BackgroundYemeni Civil War fought between Houthi Rebels and Saudi Arabia starting in 2014In 2011, there had been political uprising, led to the warNow given support by Iran, a Shia majority nationShia and Sunni Muslim divide + conflictYemeni Civil War predicted to end quickly, continues todayBoth sides exploit child soldiersSegment 2: Set-Up for Child SoldiersVillages left impoverished, no food/resources, disease Houthis and Saudi Arabia coalition take advantage of this, target the villagesOffer jobs to the unknowing children before throwing them into the warHouthis engage in form of indoctrination in summer campsMake fighting out to be a holy, noble purposeIn 2020, the UN had counted 163 cases of children being turned into soldiers by Yemen.In 2021, Houthis have continued their advancementUS is trying to pull out of support for Saudi coalition Segment 3: What Has Been DoneOrganizations and groups are fighting child soldiers in YemenBelieve it violates International Criminal Court's Rome Statute ban on child soldiersTrying to have the UN interveneCRUCSY program that reintegrates childrenPrioritizes safety and assimilationIssue is at its roots connected to the Civil War, so hard to pinpoint exact solutionVisit the Children And Armed Conflict UN website or the Borgen Project to learn more about the issue.Music...

In this episode we explore the socioeconomic impact of Covid-19, paying special attention to its implications for gender and North-South inequalities. Our guests include Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research; Mehrinaz El Awady, Leader of the Gender Justice, Population and Inclusive Development Cluster at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia; and Julio Gambina, Professor of Political Economics at the National University of Rosario and member of partner research network CLACSO. As a bonus, this episode includes excerpts from interviews with leaders of partner grassroots women's organizations in Gulu, Uganda, conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma and West Virginia University. At the end of the episode, Security in Context's Omar Dahi and Firat Demir discuss the main highlights of the interviews and share their own takes on the content.

We like to talk about algorithms, and big data, and machine learning, but sometimes we'd do well to take a step back and ask about what the business really needs. This is especially true in developing markets, where consultants can forget to bring the organisation along with them when they implement the latest and greatest scoring tech. In this episode 5 of How to Lend Money to Strangers, I speak to Joffre Toerien of Credit Insight Analytics about the lessons he has learned building scorecards for microfinance lenders in Africa and Europe, how he manages the balances between scorecard predictiveness and organisational inertia, and a little bit about lending in Georgia, a country of 4 million nestled between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.   You can find a full written transcript of the show, plus articles and more at www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes You can learn more about Joffre and his work at https://www.credit-insight.com/ You can learn more about FINCA at https://www.fincaimpact.com/ You can learn more about Cardano at https://africa.cardano.org/ You can reach me with questions, or to participate on the show by emailing brendan@howtolendmoneytostrangers.show