Transcript

4.6.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Lexington Herald Leader. Today is Monday, April sixth, and your
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reader is Rod Brotherton. As you know, rady Oi is
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read predat material
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on Monday, particularly since this was Easter weekend. Well, Prayther
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has a column that we'll be reading now. It's title
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you can be both incredibly successful and incredibly miserable. Perhaps
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you've noticed this paradox. People seek a sense of fulfillment,
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a purpose for which to live, and a way to
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find me. Our inclination is to pursue fulfillment by striving
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for things that gratify our ego. Educational attainment, financial success, publication.
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We set out to become winners, to prove ourselves to
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ourselves and others. The paradox is that nearly always, none
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of these things work. The more we achieve the empyor
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we feel, so we desperately work harder to grab the
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bigger brass ring, thinking one will satisfy the void in
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our souls. Recently I read an essay on the Free
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Press on this fool's error. It was written by Arthur C. Brooks,
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a social scientist considered among the world's leading authorities on
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human happiness. He's a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School
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and the Harvard Business School. Here's how this thing starts.
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It's no secret that we are living the time of
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profound unhappiness. According to the General Social Service, the percentage
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of American adults who all ages, who are not too
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happy about their lives more than double from twenty the
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year two thousand to twenty twenty four. Young adults who
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are hit especially hard. The percentage of American adolescents symptoms
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of major depression nearly triple from twenty oh to five
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to twenty nineteen, wild anxiety almost double. But the really
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weird part, Brooks says, is that those suffering most are
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not just the down and out times, the addicts, poverished falls,
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the fallen sons, that those for whom things are obviously
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gone wrong in their lives. On the contrary, it's also
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those who seem to have everything going for them right.
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In other words, our young and most successful strivers. Brooks
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writes about the despair he encounters among his students at Harvard.
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I don't want to do him the injustice, boiling down
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what he says into the limited space I have here,
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Go read the essay he will thank me, having just
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marked my seventieth birthday. However, I found his observations prompted
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me to think about the meaning of life that tip
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to money python. I realized I've led in existence that,
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although ordinary and obscure, has provided me spiritual and emotional satisfaction.
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I've also been fortunate enough to know a number of
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other fulfilled, happy people. For what it's worth, I thought
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i'd suggest some qualities or states of mind pursuits. I'm
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not sure what, Paul I believe. There are more satisfying
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things and getting another raise in work, a bigger car,
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or winning a professional award. You want to have meaning
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building around these things. Love. Each of us needs someone
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or something to love profound more than we love our sins.
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Deep love helps us set aside our pity, meanness, jealousy,
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and narcissism. For Biblical writers, naturally, the most satisfying object
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of human love was God, but not everybody is capable
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of loving God. Fortunately, love directed to a lesser object
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can be effective too. Spouse, child, close friend, the dog,
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the sea, everybody needs love, somebody or something, then faith.
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Humans are born for faith, just as we're born to love.
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That's why religion never really goes away, even in supposedly
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atheistic states such as the old Soviet Union, are in
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skeptical times when scientific materialism becomes the supposed to answer
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all questions. Again, not everybody will believe in God, but
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everybody needs to believe in something transcendent and move religion.
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That might be a world of peace, or even the environment,
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or better healthcare, patriotism, or the transforming power of art.
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I rarely met a fulfilled person. We didn't believe it
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was a cause greater than his own selfish wants. Then
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we have hope. The Greek word used in the Bible
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for hope has a different inflection than what we usually
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mean today when we say hope. The Biblical word means
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a joyful expectation. I might say I brought a power
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Baltic Hi. Sure, hope, I hit that jackpot, but I
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know the odds are overwhelmingly against me. In contrast, the
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Biblical word means we possess a happy confidence that better
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things are coming. Without this hope, the daily struggle to
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conquer our troubles feels pointless. With it, our efforts become
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investments toward that future. Then there's benefolence. We should try
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to look for the best in every situation and hope
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for the best for everyone or stranger. We give people
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the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming the worst
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about them. We help those who are weaker poorer, rather
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than ignore or blame them. We regard life as a blessing.
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We've been granted on earth as a beautiful place to
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call home, despite all the ills and things that we
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must endure. We live with our hearts and hands open,
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and then humor. Nothing lifts the spirit more effectively than
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a belly laugh or a piffy one liner. The ability
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to see the absurdities around us and poke fund it,
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then neutralize as much of the pain laughter drowns despair.
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Few things are more corrosive than taking ourselves to series.
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And then, finally, mercy. We learn mercy as the ears
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reveal our imperfecsions. We see our own ridiculous ignorance. We
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stare day at the dross of our fingers. This can
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produce us and a compassion toward others who have failed.
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We understand we're all just muddling through. As we join
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this fellowship of the forlorn, something glorious happens. We find
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the lightness of the soul. We no longer have to
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be perfect because we can't. We don't expect others to
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be perfect. We wake up swimming in a sea of
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pure grace. And as you know, Paul Frather's the pastor
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professor church near mountst. You can email him at pr
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atpd at yahoo dot com. Now it's turned to the
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hopefully blissful news awaiting us from the Washington Post. And yes,
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our first story is indeed and amazing. United States rescues
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the missing airmen from Iranian mountains after fighter jet was
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shot there. We got it, president Trump announced, after an intense,
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deception laden operation by the CIA and US forces to
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bring the airman a home. The US military and Central
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Intelligence Agency coordinated on a high stakes mission that safely
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rescued the missing crew member of a fighter jet that
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were shot down over Iran, bringing clothes a dramatic, politically
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perilous moment in the war. We got him, as we said,
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President Trump said in a post at Sunday on twelve
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o eight am. On Tupe's Truth Social describing the operation
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as one of the most daring search and rescue operations
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in the United States history. All those involved in the
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rescue made safety home. Trump, who was expected to discuss
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the operation and a Monday news conference, described the airman
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and a later post as a colonel who was seriously wounded.
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The multi day operation Dave Trump and the United States
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all window celebrate after more than five weeks of four
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with Iran and avoided what could have been a military
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and political catastrophe. The US military has piled up tactical
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successes in the conflict, with that clarity about from the
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president who campaigned on starting no new wars will extricate
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the nation from conflict that is luckily only killed thirteen troops, wounded,
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a couple of hundred others, and up into global markets.
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The airman, a weapons system officer of the two seater
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fighter aircraft, was hidden in a mountain crevas missing for
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about two days as Iranian forces and militiamen who drew near,
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sparking an elaborate rescue operation to get to him first.
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A senior Administration official to The Washington Post, the rescuers
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had to move fast get to the airman who was
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injured as Iranian television broadcast rewards for his capture of
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sixty thousand US dollar equipments. Video showed Iranians combing over
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the mountainside grain to find him. The US helicopters were
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sent to search for him were hit by ground fire.
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To disrupt the hunt, the CIA launched a deception campaign
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to spread the word insider wine. The US forces had
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already founded and were moving him via the ground to
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x filtrade him, said the official, who like others, spoke
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on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity and
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the secrecy needed for the operation. While they confused the searchers,
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the CIA located the colonel and shared the location data
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with the military in the White House, the official said,
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and Trump ordered the extrication mission. This was the ultimate
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needle in the hayst Dada, the administration official said. In
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a Sunday morning post, Trump said the officer was rescued
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from deep inside the mountains of Iran as the Iranian
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military was looking hard, in big numbers and getting close.
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Another US official said military commanders had to direct nearby
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nearly every nearby aircraft in the region to support the rescue.
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As US forces departed in Iran, they blew up two
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C one thirty cargo planes and at least to MH
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six Little Bird helicopters after the planes got stuck in
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the terrain of a makeshift airstrip that US forces used
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for the operation. The US official cit the move was
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to prevent the equipment from falling into Iran's possession. Iranian
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media on Sunday broadcast footage what appeared to be the
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charred wreckage of the US military aircraft on the airstrip.
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Video showed what appeared to be the remains of at
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least one plane and as flown by soldiers with the
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Elite one hundred and sixtieth Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which
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transports Special Operation troops that include the Delta Force. As
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Trump celebrated the rescue on social media, other senior US
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officials remained tight lipped about the operation. One said few
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additional details would be forthcoming until Trump's news conference planned
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from Monday afternoon. Sean Parnell, Pentagon spokesman and Army veteran,
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marveled at the operation on social media, saying that each
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fase was marked by profound moments grace, small miracles made
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possible through the unrelenting tenacity, extens experience, and elite train.
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The intense search and rescue operation launched on Friday after
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the Air Force F fifteen E jet crashed. Both crew
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members ejected. The pilot was quickly found and recovered alive,
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triggering an extensive mission to locate the weapons officer and
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involved dozens of aircraft fromp SET, along with special operations
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troops and other personnel trained to operate in dangerous environments
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to rescue fellow service members. The mission was iris USC
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one thirties rescue helicopters flying low and slow over Iran's
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mountainous terrain to locate the missing air As the search
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was ongoing, the Iranian television broadcast statement offering a reward
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for the recovery of the down the crew member. Another
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broadcast called on residents to target any Americans they found
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irv The state broadcasters set on social media that men
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people had gone to the crash suite and that the
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Iranian military had called on the feeble not to let
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anyone mistreat the pilot. Israel assistant with the intelligence and
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the rescue operation of the crew member of a down
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F fifteen E fighter jet in Iran, Israeli official said,
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and the persons familiar with the operation told the Post,
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also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the
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sensitive operations. Around the same time that the fighter jet
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was shot down, on Friday, An, a ten Thunderbolt to
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attack plane was struck by incoming fire from Iran for ejecting.
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The pilot was able to get the aircraft to Kuwaiti
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airspace and was also rescued on Friday. In addition, two
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of the rescue helicopters that had been searching for the
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missing F fifteen crew member took ground fire from raw
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during the operation. Some of the service members on board
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were injured, but all returned safety to base. The US
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official earlier post the incident marked the first known instance
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of an American crewed aircraft being brought down inside hostile
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territory since the US Israeli War and Iran began five
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weeks ago. Combat search and rescue operations are some of
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the riskiest missions carried out by the US. Melchi air
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crews and recovery personnel are on constant standby for such operations,
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which involved rushing and rapidly evolving in chaotic environments. Missions
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are considered especially challenging in environments like Iran, where the
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lack of US ground troops creates additional complexities for any rescue.
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Also from the conflict from Oman, A waterfront view of
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the embattled Strait of Horror moves crossing the border into
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Aman from the United Arab Emirates. Jagged limestone cliffs gives
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weight to turquoise water. Stretching into the distance the shores
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of Iran, or forty five minutes away by speedboat, the
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Strait of Horn moves even closer. A small boat churning
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up white weight was the only sign of activity on
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a recent morning, cutting across otherwise eerily quiet water. The boat,
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locals explained, was likely carrying goats and fresh produce to
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Omani shores from Iran. This area has captured the world's
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attention for more than a month, with a straight a
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vital passageway for the world's oil supply, now emblematic steep
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costs of the US Israeli war as Ron's retaliatory strikes
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leaves the waterway all but in passing. The approaching boat,
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one of many that locals said very daily between the
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two nations was an example of how local trade continues
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in this deeply interconnected region and how quiet fishing towns
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like Cassab now find themselves at the front lines of war.
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They are like cousins Shamiah Ahmad thirty two instead of
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the Iranians and the Omanis Now everyone is afraid and
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afraid of speed. We don't want to create problems. We
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know Kasab is in the midual. This sleepy town with
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a population of twenty one thousand is built on fishing,
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and tourists don't imparts for its isolation. Kasab is an
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enclave separated from the rest of Oman and surrounded on
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the land by the UAE. When trade was cut in
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head during the coronavirus pandemic, Ahmed said Iran was the
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first nation to send much food ties between Cassab and Iran,
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which are about twenty four miles apart a bound, she said,
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with Iranians setting up businesses in Kassab and Iranian women
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often marrying the town's fishermen. Now, Cassav's residents listened most
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days to distant booms in the United States and Israel
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pummel Ran with bombs. Most people here are frustrated with
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the US for launching the warmon said and fearful of
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what's next.
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Speaker 2: Well, never imagine this would happen, said Ali Mohammad Suleiman forty,
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a boat captain who said his best catches, including tuna,
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squid and barrakuda, all used to come from the Strait.
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Speaker 1: Of Hormus and the water's closest to Iran before we
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could go anywhere. Since the war started, Suleiman said, the
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straight has been off limits to fishermen, who are fined
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by Omani military when they get too close. He is
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from the village of Kumsag, located directly on the street
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of Poor Mows, accessible only by helicopter or an hour's
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boat ride. Kumza is so connected with Iran that many
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of the words in its language Kumzari, are Persian. We
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don't know what will happen, Suluman said, adding that he
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fears a ground invasion and we can only hope for peace.
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President Trump has signals he is preparing to find down
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The war was also indicated that it could escalate. First
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the social media posts. On Sunday, he celebrated the rescue
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of the crew of the down F fifteen E fighter
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jet and warned that fierce bombing on Tuesday of Iran's
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power plants and bridges previously threatened to bomb the country
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back to the Stone Age. The Straight of Horn moves
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remains a flashman, but Tehran insisting on full control over
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it as one demand for ending the war. Trump on
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Sunday reiterated his demand that the Iranians opened the waterway
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Vanity Leaden social media post. A UK led coalition of
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more than forty countries met on Tuesday to discuss efforts
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to secure safe passage for vessels, but how they will
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gain that control of the waterway remains unclear. The narrow
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geography proximity to Iran would make such a mission complicated
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and dangerous. Oman, which mediated the last round of nuclear
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talks between the United States and Iran before the US
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and Israel attack, has tried to remain neutral. Even after
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Iran bombed Aman's main port. Ahman's foreign minister described Iran's
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retaliation as an inevitable result of the US is really aggression.
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Almany police told the Washington Post journalist visiting Cassab that
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riding was permitted, but photography was not. The boat ride
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from the Strait of hormuse was forbidden, they said, adding
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that they were worried about angering Iran or the US,
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and that Ahman found itself in a tricky spot. At
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an empty restaurant in the town center, a water Sheihan
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majid Is twenty six, said he spends his days refreshing
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the news on his phone, wondering each time what is
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today's problem? Jen said. He still that everyone around the
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world is talking about this area. It is a small place,
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a good place, a place where we have had no problem.
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He said. This was an area known for its safety
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and beauty, said Boushehir Mohammed thirty seven, whose family runs
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one of about thirty tours of companies in the area.
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His country seas an average of six hundred customers in
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a typical month, he said, but for all of March
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there had been closer to thirty, most of them visitors
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from the UAE coming in for i'd to tell the
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end of Ramadan. Most people here are not afraid of
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dyings in London, but afraid of what life will look
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like in the future. At first, Mohammad, whose family, like
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many hears from India, assumed that the war would end
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in two days he said, passed the one month mark,
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he could see that public frustration with the situation was growing,
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and he warned a visitor that much of the ire
23:56
is focused on the US. No one, he said, can
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unders dan Trump's reason continuing the war. As a large
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wooden dow, adorned with red carpets and cushions for tours
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to sit on, sped through the clear water on a
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recent day, Captain Eastmay Hassan thirty two pointed into the distance.
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About two kilometers away, he explained, was the notorious Strait
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of horn Moves. That zone was heavily militarized and off limits,
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he said. The boats still speeding through the Persian Gulf,
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a few more than earlier in the morning, were the
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ones transporting goats from Iran, said Hussein, who is from
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Bangladesh and has lived in Kassav for eight years now.
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As the dow turned away from the strait into crackley inlets,
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Hassan clumbered on top, clapped his hands in whistly. Upot
24:52
of dolphins appeared, plane jumping out of the water, and
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he being this is the perfect month from fourt he said,
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looking up at a mostly cloudless blue sky, not too
25:05
hot not too cold, perfect sunrises and perfect sunsets. But
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since the day the war started, he said, there have
25:15
been virtually no one and no business around. The war
25:20
felt far away. His co captain Isa, who was from Cumzar,
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blasted a musical medley ranging for Rihanna's Umbrella to Celine
25:29
Dion's I'm Alive from the Taos Speakers. Isa said that
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his village has always been close with Iran, that the
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Kumsari language is so closely mirroring Farsi that he could
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understand most of the war, he said, has changed everything.
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Holman is a good country, a peaceful country, he said.
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We just want to stay out of this next Removing
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a tyrant is easy, changing a regime, It's hard. One
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of the most perplexing questions of the Iranian war has
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been quite so many people, both in the Trump administration
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and among the punditry, thought the regime would collapse as
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soon as its most senior military and political officers were killed.
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The answer lies in the common category eraror not. All
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authorian authoritarian states are brittle dictatorships. I've seen my share
26:29
of dictatorship's fall apart after decapitation. I saw it in Haiti,
26:34
where I began my foreign reporting career, covering the fall
26:37
of President for Live Jean Claus Baby dot Uilier in
26:40
nineteen eighty six. The country fell into violent anarchy that
26:46
persists today. In the early nineteen nineties, I witnessed the
26:50
chaos left behind in Somalia following the fall of Dictator
26:55
Mohammed Sadbeh in Zaiir. Now the Democratic Republic is still
27:01
a partially failed state years after tubosse Seco was run out.
27:08
When those dictators, regimes collapsed collapsed because the dictator had
27:12
hollowed out all the normal organs of the state, because
27:15
power was concentrated into one man's hands, and all other
27:19
institutions just affricate. But more often than not, authoritarian regimes
27:25
are deeply institutionalized. They can rule their populations with ruthless
27:30
efficiency because they are embedded in every province, city, and village.
27:35
They can survive the removal of the leader because the
27:38
regime is decentralized, built to endure, and buttressed by a
27:44
sprawling elite whose power and wealth depend on the system survival.
27:49
Consider China, President Communist Party Secretary General Xi Jinping has
27:54
amasked more power than any Chinese duer since Miles eight.
27:59
Don't but the Communist Party a chronic consists of roughly
28:03
one hundred million members. It is deeply rooted in every village, classroom.
28:08
In fact, China has seen its share of leadership turmoil.
28:13
I was in Beijing in twenty twelve when the Carrig's
28:16
mastic jing Qing Party's boss, Bowel Zili was sacked and
28:22
later in prison, partly because he was suspected plotting to
28:27
derails Z's ascendancy. Chinese social media was filled with wild rooms,
28:34
tempted coups, with tanks in the streets. Despite the turmoil
28:38
of that relatively recent episode, it illuminates the paradise of
28:43
authoritarian states head bo one out oversea. The system would
28:49
in all likelihood have constituted itself around a new leader.
28:54
There simply is too much at stake the whole system
28:57
to collapse over a leadership struggle. If Z were removed tomorrow,
29:03
the Communist Party in China would carry on a mistake
29:09
observers off in Make and I count myself among the
29:11
past defenders, is to personalize regimes and oversimplify complex geopolitical issues.
29:20
If only such and such leader were removed, the country
29:23
would be transformed. Unfortunately, that's not how things were. In
29:29
twenty eleven, I was living in Beijing when North Korean
29:32
leader Kim Jong il died unexpectedly. I interviewed various Chinese
29:38
and Western analysts who were optimistic that Kim's death would
29:42
lead to reform and modernization of the notoriously closed country.
29:47
Many opine that Kim's son and heir, Kim Jong un,
29:52
was too young and untested to hold the reins of
29:55
powerful law. Others said the younger Kim had studied and switched,
30:01
likely to have had him more open and less doctrinaire.
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My story in the Washington Post was headlined with elder
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Kim's death. Some see a window for change in North Korea,
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whether the young Kim was transformed by the system he inherited,
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or whether he received all the reluctant upbringing at his
30:23
father's feet. North Korea has largely stayed the same. A
30:29
hereditary totalitarian state, the pervasive cult personnel, extensive political prison camps,
30:38
and an extreme information control plus nuclear weapons. Another regime
30:47
I thought was solely reliant on one man was Robert Mugabi,
30:51
seven thirty seven year dictatorship in Zimbabwe under Mugabi, a
30:56
once heralded liberation fighter, zimbab Boy was by the two
31:00
thousands and economic mess in total shoutings. In twenty seventeen,
31:06
at the age of ninety three, the frail Mugabe was
31:10
detained by his military and forced to resign. Zimbabweans were jubilant,
31:17
so was ad from Afar, But more than eight years
31:22
later Zimbabwe as much the same mess under the new
31:25
big man dictator Emerson and Gobwabweh was mcgabi's former spy
31:32
chief knows the crocodile. The new president promised change, but
31:37
at eighty three, he's still in charge and the repressive
31:41
system remains very much intact. Israel has long relied on
31:47
the decapitation strategy to eliminate its enemies. One was Sheikh
31:52
Hamad Yasan, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas and Gaza,
31:57
who was killed in a twenty oh four Israeli military strife.
32:02
Israeli officials boasted the assassin would hamper Hamas's ability to
32:06
conduct future terroristic attacks. I had interviewed Hassan in his
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Gaza office four years later. I was stunned in his
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sick quadriplegic using a wheelchair, whose voice was so faint
32:21
it could barely be picked up on my tape recorder.
32:25
The frail figure I meant could not possibly have been
32:29
the sum total of Hamas, And sure enough Hamas not
32:35
only continued but became more vicious and extreme under the
32:40
new leadership. The lesson is that a decapitation of a
32:44
deeply instituosed, institutionalized authoritarian regime doesn't create a back It
32:52
may trigger a power stuggle, but it also stokes vengeance.
32:58
President Trump as the expressed surprise that Roan responded to
33:02
the killing of a supreme leader not with capitulation but retaliation.
33:08
He should not have been. Ron's new leaders may be wounded, paranoid,
33:14
and diminished, but regimes like that don't fade away when
33:19
few men at the top are carted off or blown away.
33:23
Moving leaders is easy. Dismantling the oppressive system may build.
33:29
It's much harder. Were now shifting years a bit the
33:32
next story. We may have less control over how long
33:36
we lived, and previously thought Furi Alaan was long puzzled
33:43
by a textbook statistics. Longevity we thinking went was about
33:49
twenty percent in our genes. What makes you think that
33:53
it's the eighty rest of the eighty percent is the lifestyle.
33:57
Why should we study genes for life standing it's not
34:00
that important, and that kind of bothered me Cielan, a
34:03
physicist turned systems biologist at the Weisman Institute of Science
34:08
and Israel. Alan used mathematical models to understand complicated biological problems,
34:16
and he and his colleagues built one to re examine
34:19
the factors that defined the contours of the human species
34:22
in a science study published earlier this year. The original
34:27
studies that were used to estimate how much a lifespan
34:31
was inherited were studies of Scandinavian twins from the tail
34:35
end of the nineteenth century. During that era, extrinsic mortality
34:42
deaths that aren't related to the deterioration of aging, such
34:46
as accidents, violence, of death from infections that are now
34:50
uncommon because of better nutrition, therapies and hygiene, was high.
34:55
His team examined the database of Swedish twins born later
34:59
between nineteen hundred and nineteen thirty five and found that
35:03
these extrinsic deaths were masking the inherited component of a lifespan.
35:09
Where they applied their model designed to remove extrinsic deaths.
35:13
To databases of Scandinavian twins and the siblings of people
35:16
who lived to at least one hundred, the inheritability of
35:21
lifespan marked increase to about half. It isn't that the
35:26
old studies wrong, but they found they focused on longevity
35:30
in a different era, a generation born between eighteen seventy
35:35
and nineteen hundred. At that time, people died of pneumonia
35:39
and tuberculosis, and not a lot of people made it
35:42
into their forties. Along said, in that situation, who cares
35:47
how long your parents live? Genes don't have a chance.
35:52
Near bar Ziai, director of the Institute for Aging Research
35:57
at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not involved
36:01
in the study, pointed to his own family history. His
36:05
grandfather had a heart attack and died at the age
36:08
of sixty eight. His father had a heart attack at
36:11
the same age, but had a triple bypass surgery and
36:13
lived eighty four. Do the father and son live the
36:17
same amount of years? No, because if you look at
36:21
the father and sons, what happens in between his progress
36:24
and medicine, Marziali said in hindsight is perhaps obvious that
36:31
genes play a major role in determining lifespan. As humans,
36:36
we live very different wives than other organisms. And the
36:40
difference between you and me, a mouse or a bowhead
36:44
well our Bristol Coombe pine that lives five thousand years,
36:48
or the yeast and a dough that lives thirteen days,
36:51
is the real difference, and that is the genes, said
36:55
Morton Schleivey Nudsen, associate professor focused on aging research at
37:01
the University of Copenhatten, who was also not involved in
37:05
the study, but because previous studies had suggested human lifespan
37:11
was only ten percent to thirty percent, heretagy that in
37:15
some way or another gives us liberty and imagining we
37:19
could live become very old and we had control and
37:22
were masters of our own angel Slivey nusinaid the new
37:27
study resects the discussion, showing that both genes and environment
37:33
are important. Thomas Pearl's longevity researcher at Boston University and
37:38
the founding director of the New England Centurion Study, agrees
37:44
that genetics plays a major role in lifespan, but that
37:48
it depends on what age you're talking about. At the
37:52
very extremes of old age people who lived to one
37:55
hundred and five or ten. Genetics plays a major role
38:00
in life span, but Pearl's points to a twenty eighteen
38:03
study in the journal Circulation suggesting that even without winning
38:08
the genetic lottery, the average person can probably get to
38:12
about eighty eight as a man and ninety three as
38:15
a woman. That depends on embracing good health related behaviors.
38:21
He knowes that socioeconomic advantages contribute to access to health care, education,
38:29
healthy food. I think that the average human being and
38:34
the average genetic makeup provide resilience and resistance to aging
38:39
better than people have thought. In the fact, Pearl said,
38:42
ALON thinks that it is a genetic set point. How
38:47
old our parents and grandparents were when they died has
38:51
some effect on the probability of how long we live.
38:54
Healthy habits can add years, but the upside is less
38:59
pronounced bad habits, which can shear decads off of lifespan.
39:06
How should we live well? Don't give up for scientists
39:10
searching for longevity related genes. The new evidence underscores the
39:16
urgency to look for the biological mechanisms behind very long lifespans.
39:22
A deeper understanding of the hundreds of tiny variations and
39:27
genes that influence lifespan could provide targets for drugs that
39:32
could influence aging. But alons still eat salads and swims.
39:38
While several longevity scientists gave different numbers to how many
39:42
years healthy living could add to an individual's life trajectory
39:45
see from five to twenty, they all agree there was
39:49
some play in the system. What's clear is that unhealthy
39:54
behaviors can sharply decrease it. What's your starting point, Actually
40:00
don't know that. We have no way of measuring it.
40:03
Shlighty Knutson said, so, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how
40:08
you look at it, that means you should not smoke,
40:12
you should drink very moderately and eat your vegetables. Now,
40:19
back in politics and the Hungarian election, Trump and Putin
40:24
are backing Victor Orbalon. When Vice President jd. Vance heads
40:31
to Budapest this week. His support for Hungary's and battle
40:36
Prime Minister Victor orbon will represent a last ditch bit
40:41
to rescue the pro Kremlin Hungarian who was forged ties
40:45
to the top of the MAGA movement, but it's trailing
40:48
in the polls. And of a national election on April twelve.
40:54
Questions are mounting about Vance's visit Poles, indicating that Orbon
40:58
is falling increase singly behind his center right rival. Peter
41:03
Magyar was challenging Orbon over alleged corruption Hungary's flagging economy.
41:11
Toughest election Orbon has faced since reclaiming the premiership sixteen
41:16
years ago. Orbon's campaign has been racked by reports that
41:23
his government colludes with Moscow. Tension has risen over government
41:28
efforts to crack down on his political opponents. A report
41:32
by Russian foreign intelligence showed that Moscow was so worried
41:37
about Orbon's standing that it considered staging an assassination attempt
41:42
on Orbon to try to boost his sagging popularity. Orbon
41:47
reportedly wanted to visit by President Trump. Trump has focused
41:51
on the Iran war and often doesn't campaign for tendidates
41:55
serious risk losing. The US embassy certainly knows the polls
42:01
and that Victor is not on the winning track, said
42:04
Andrea Surprise, a senior fellow with the German Council on
42:07
Foreign Relations Center for Security and Defense. Betting on a
42:11
loser that sounds weird, Daniel Fry, a former US am
42:17
vassadors of Poland and former Assistant Secretary of State from Europe,
42:22
said Vance's visit showed the White House putting an usual
42:26
priority on a foreign election. The immediate rejoinder will be
42:31
we're at war with Iran and it seems to be
42:35
going either not well or escalating, and this is how
42:38
you spend your time. It's it Borbond has made a
42:43
hallmark of his political culture to say that we resist
42:46
foreign interference, particularly from Brussels. And yet now he's inviting
42:52
foreign interference and I'm not sure to work. Smacks of desperation.
42:58
A spokesperson for Vance laid down the electoral dimension to
43:03
the trip and said the Vice President was looking forward
43:06
to visiting Hungary, a close US ally, to build on
43:11
the progress President Trump and Prime Minister Orbon have made
43:14
on many key issues, including energy, technology, and defense. But
43:20
Western officials said the visit by Vance, scheduled for April
43:25
seventh and eight, right before the election, is a sign
43:29
of how important Orbon has become to certain MAGA circles,
43:33
in particular for Vance close around him. Among them are
43:38
supporters of a new alignment between the United States and Russia,
43:42
who criticized Europe's liberal democracies as Orbon over the past decade,
43:49
took a forceful stance against migrants and refugees, who claimed
43:53
himself Europe's champion of illegal Christian illiberal Christian democracy. Budapest
44:01
became a magenet for American conservatives. Orbon's government, bank rolled
44:07
in part by cheap Russian energy supplies, poured money into
44:11
a network of think tanks that became hubs for MAGA
44:15
and nationalist ideology, that in turn provided channels for the
44:19
Krimlin to filter its talking points to American right wing groups.
44:25
It's been a year's long campaign, very persistent and deliberate,
44:31
far more sophisticated than people will give it credit. For Set,
44:35
a former State Department official from Trump's first term, who,
44:40
like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity,
44:43
discussed sensitive matters. The risk that Orbon could lose the
44:48
election is cataclysmic for a subset on the American right,
44:53
including for Vance's electoral coalition. Former official Set, and for
44:59
the re It's very very bad because they launder all
45:04
their narratives through these networks. Benjamin Harnwell, close associate of
45:11
former Trump's advisor, Stephen K. Bannon said, Orbon has symbolic
45:16
residence far beyond Hungry. Orbon really is now one of
45:21
the global leaders of a worldwide populist nationalist movement, and
45:27
it would be a massive psychological blow if he were
45:30
not to get re elected. Harnwell said, Victor Orbon was
45:34
Trump before Trump. In the Trump White House, Vance and
45:41
his entourage have forged the closest links with the Orbon government,
45:46
according to several Western officials, Harnwell and a person familiar
45:51
with the situation, as well as a study of public
45:54
records reported for the first time by the Washington Post.
46:00
Records appear to show the most prominent member of Vance's
46:03
closest circle with connections or bonds Hungary is Chris Buzzkirk,
46:09
head of the Rockbridge Network, the secretive fundraising group backed
46:13
by billionaire Peter Thiel, which has established itself which one
46:18
of the most influential forces in jop politics and is
46:22
credited with helping fuel Trump's reelection as well as Vance's
46:26
rise to the Vice presidence. Buskirk, in February of twenty
46:32
twenty one, was included on a list of new members
46:35
of the academic team at the Matthias Core Coronavirus Collegium
46:41
or MCC, the key Buddapest cultural foundation promoting MAGA ideas
46:47
and pro Russian views. According to a news release issue
46:51
at the time by MCC, the think tank, which is
46:55
bankrolled in part by cheap Russian energy supplies, also list
47:00
Buzzkirk on its website as among its large network of
47:05
guest speakers, names Buzzkirk among the renowned experts available to
47:10
teach students at MCC's university program for the academic years
47:15
starting in September of twenty twenty five. A spokesperson for
47:19
Buskirk was also co founder of the seventeen eighty nine Capital,
47:24
the investment firm where Donald Trump Junior service as partner.
47:28
City had no affiliation with MCC, never has and did
47:32
not attend these conferences. Any statement suggesting otherwise is false.
47:40
MCC has received hundreds of millions of dollars from Hungary's
47:44
position as a beneficiary of cheap Russian energy supplies twenty
47:50
twenty or bond gifted to MCC, a previously state owned
47:54
ten percent state in m L Hungarian oil and Gas
47:59
conglomerate the country's biggest and most profitable companies. According to analysts,
48:06
mol is a central node in kremlin efforts to prop
48:10
up Or Bond's regime for the purchase of Russian energy.
48:14
On beneficial terms, the state lifted MCC's fortunes, enabling it
48:21
to finance numerous junkets with progressional and otherwise conservative US
48:25
official to Budapest, including TV host Tucker Carlson in twenty
48:30
twenty one and in twenty twenty three, as well as
48:34
to grant fellowships Western pundits known for repeating Kremlin talking points.
48:41
MCC's chairman, Baliz Orbron, also serves as Victor Orbond's political
48:47
director and is another Advance's closest conducts in Hungary, according
48:53
to two people familiar with the battle. Another former MCC
48:59
senior five close to Bonce is Gladan Poppet, an American
49:04
Catholic who founded news media publications influential among the American
49:09
Ride in twenty sixteen and grew close to Vance before
49:13
he moved to Budapest in twenty twenty one, when he
49:16
was appointed as a senior visiting fellow at MCC. Tapan
49:21
is now paid by the Hungarian government to run a
49:24
state owned think tank the Hungarian Institute for International Affairs
49:30
TAPAN has very strong ties to US leadership and ideological
49:35
minds shaping foreign policy. One of the Western officials sid
49:41
he's the J. D. Field Elon musk NeXT's Hornwell. Sid Upon,
49:48
who has posted photos of himself posing with Vance and
49:52
Balzas Bond at least three times since the beginning of
49:56
the Trump's second administration, told The Post Vice President Vance's
50:02
visit signals a strong commitment to American Hungarian friendship as
50:08
a key foundation of peace and prosperity. When Trump said
50:14
in octobe that he would meet Kutin in Budapest within
50:18
weeks to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine,
50:21
a meeting that was later aborted, Bazas, Orbona and Upon
50:27
were in Washington meeting with top Uous officials. People familiar
50:31
with the matter said, there's a new way of looking
50:35
at the European leadership on the American side, and I
50:39
think that's reflected some of the partnerships that are being built,
50:43
Upon told The Post at the Khan Since Orbon was
50:47
elected Prime Minister for the second time in twenty ten,
50:51
the Hungarian leader has been at the forefront of efforts
50:54
to forge a post liberal world order while forging every
50:59
close relationship with Russen President Vladimir Putin, Orban began espousing
51:04
a brand of nationalist populism that emphasized traditional conservative values,
51:10
and he railed against LGBTQ plus and other rights movements.
51:17
As Orbon ramped up efforts to forge connections with the
51:20
American right, Hungary became first an echo chamber for Kremlin
51:25
talking points and then a means of funneling them to
51:28
the American mainstream. According to the former State Department official,
51:34
the pro government Hungarian media often repeats Kremlin disinformation as fact.
51:39
According to Andreas Delegates, a former Hungarian deputy Foreign intelligence chief,
51:46
and Peter Krenco, the head of Political Capital, an independent
51:51
Buddhapist consultancy. Without Orbon's role legitimizing Kremlin talking points and
51:58
sanitizing them, Russian narratives may never have broken through in
52:03
the United States, the former efficial set. There are a
52:07
lot of people on the right in the US who
52:09
would never associate with Russians but think that Hungarians are
52:14
perfectly fine. The numerous junkets funded by Brutes think tanks
52:21
also played a role. Void by his reputation as an
52:25
anti Woolk crusader. Or Bond's government was able to build
52:30
influence by targeting those on the American right who don't
52:34
do foreign policy and generating goodwill from the ground up.
52:38
The former official set, adding they've been doing trips. They
52:42
invite congressional staff to Hungary, but they don't bring the
52:46
national security staff who know better. According to Hanway, for
52:51
many the invitations to Budapest, complete with lavish hospitality, have
52:56
been no more than a gravy train. Some of them
53:00
may just be going for the money, he said. Nevertheless,
53:05
Hungarian institutions and forged close connections with the US think
53:09
tanks at the cutting edge of the Magaboo. Another Hungarian
53:14
state financed outlet, the Dan Yube Institute, signed a memorandum
53:18
of understanding in March of twenty TWEE twenty twenty three
53:22
with the Heritage Foundation, just before the conservative Washington think
53:26
tank published its Project twenty twenty five manifesto on overhauling
53:31
the US government. Heritage's president, Kenton Roberts, has been a
53:36
speaker at MCC events. Some Hungarian officials say they worry
53:42
they needed last minute intervention by Advance to support Orbonsby
53:46
laguered campaign as unlikely to turn undecided voters. I think
53:51
it's only Trump that counts. I don't think the advance
53:54
would do any good well. Hungarian official said Trump is different.
53:59
He's a globe celebrity. But even Trump's public endorsement of
54:04
warbond twice in recent weeks by video and social media
54:09
have given no visible boost to the Prime Minister's standing.
54:13
Of his Bisecretary of State Marco Rubio to Budapest in February,
54:17
where he told Orbon that your success is our success.
54:22
Similarly not appear to produce a bump. Trump's warn Iran
54:27
has not helped. Rossett said, apart from any real hardline
54:31
ruling Party voters, no one likes Trump that much. Worbon's
54:36
campaign has faced increasing pressure in recent weeks following reporting
54:41
in The Post citing a European security official that his
54:45
Foreign Minister, Peter Sijarto regularly telephoned his Russian counterpart, sar
54:51
j Lavarov, give live reports during breaks of sensitive European
54:56
Union meetings. Sijarto initially denied the report, saying was fake news,
55:03
but later admitted that he coordinates about decisions during EU
55:07
meetings with foreign leaders, including Russians, saying such steps were
55:13
one of the necessities of diplomacy. The European security official
55:18
dismissedge Sijarto's description of the calls as no more than
55:22
an attempt to blur the picture, claiming his call to
55:25
Lavrov were completely different from those made to other foreign ministers.
55:31
Several independent investigative outlets, including Hungary's at V Square, last
55:35
week published a leak recording of a call between Sijeto
55:40
and Lavrov, which showed them coordinating on an effort to
55:45
help Russian billionaires, companies and banks when reprieved of sanctions
55:51
imposed by the European Union. I am always at your disposal,
55:57
Sajarto told Lavrov. According to the recording, Sajarto did not
56:02
deny the bodings, but played down the contents of the call,
56:07
saying that journalists had proved that I say the same
56:11
publicly as I do on the phone, but Hungarians about
56:15
sensitive information being related to Moscow by Hungary and rising
56:20
among EU officials. What these recordings have revealed is more
56:24
than just the political speedings of the Buutpest government on Moscow.
56:29
It has exposed just how unacceptable and bizarre. This relationship
56:34
truly is, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a
56:38
news conference in Warsaw last week. The Hungarian government sought
56:44
to counter of the revelation by claiming that Sijarto was
56:47
a victim of wiretaping by a foreign intelligence service, and
56:50
last week said it had opened an espionage case to
56:53
get the prominent Hungarian journalists at V Square, Zebulis Panye
56:58
was led reporting into Russi efforts to influence the Hungarian
57:02
Hungarian politics. Critics have decried the efforts it's an attempt
57:06
to divert attention away from the Orbon government's alleged collusion
57:10
with Moscow, and Panya has announced the allegations as false.
57:15
He said the Hungarian attempt was adopting tactics that really
57:19
belonged to Putin's Russia, Belarus and similar regimes. And this
57:24
concludes the reading of the Washington Post War Today, Monday,
57:27
April sixth. Your reader for today has been Rod Brothers.
57:30
If he have questions, comments or suggestions, please free to
57:33
call us at eight five nine four two two sixty
57:36
three nine. Thank you for listening, and now please stay
57:39
tuned for continued programming right here on Radio Live