Latest / International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better / S-400s, Sanctions and Sticker Shock: Russia–India Deals, Ukrainian Refugee Fatigue and a Lazy Friday on International Flavor Radio

Transcript

S-400s, Sanctions and Sticker Shock: Russia–India Deals, Ukrainian Refugee Fatigue and a Lazy Friday on International Flavor Radio · International Flavor: Where the Truth Tastes Better

0:00
It's incredibly awesome music to bring you some
0:02
incredibly awesome political talk on damn radio Hello,
0:08
good morning.
0:09
Welcome.
0:10
I'm Samuel Trapp.
0:11
This is International flavor you are on damn
0:14
radio I'm coming to you today.
0:18
Where from where?
0:20
From the Lake Ozark real estate of the
0:24
art studio.
0:24
That's correct Feel free to phone in if
0:27
you feel the desire 5 7 3 7
0:29
4 6 8 0 2 0 I think
0:36
I'm I Have been slightly overworked today, so
0:41
I'm gonna be lazy.
0:42
Okay I've just feel like being lazy today
0:46
is what the what the deal is Sometimes
0:49
it's good to be lazy and if you
0:51
can pick a day to be lazy on
0:53
Friday is usually it although Monday There's a
0:56
lot of good things to be said about
0:58
being lazy on a Monday.
0:59
That's positive couple of things that are out
1:05
there in the news today things you might
1:09
wish to be aware of that There was
1:14
an f-16 that crashed in, California Member
1:19
of the Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatics team you
1:23
can watch the video of it and they
1:26
safely ejected and There's a interesting video of
1:32
it, but there was an f-16 see
1:36
crashed in a training mission over, California on
1:41
Wednesday morning according to the Air Force Isn't
1:46
that depressing You know, maybe you've already heard
1:50
of it I I had seen you know
1:52
a lot of planes Just never read it
1:59
And it was unpopulated desert area 130 miles
2:03
northeast of downtown, LA Where they did live
2:08
weapons testing I forget the name of that
2:10
place is probably what Ford or went out
2:12
that way There was a live fire range
2:16
out there, but I don't remember if the
2:18
Air Force had it or not They call
2:24
it What did we call it back then
2:28
the National Training Center NTC and When I
2:34
was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas every year
2:40
they would Bring it you would load up
2:44
all of your equipment for the whole 2nd
2:47
armored division 3rd Corps for 1st infantry and
2:52
they would Load it all on trains and
2:57
take it across the southwest to Fort Irwin
3:02
and we would hang out out there for
3:07
oh geez two weeks three weeks doing training
3:11
and That's some some interesting times out there.
3:16
I suppose you've never really lived until you
3:21
Use The bathroom in a in a in
3:24
a bathroom built for a hundred men with
3:27
50 toilets lining either side With no walls
3:31
in between them well, I suppose you've never
3:34
lived until you've gone through that or better
3:38
yet driving over a sand dune and coming
3:41
across a Full moon as it were Coming
3:46
across the full moon of somebody you worked
3:49
with a a female, you know coming across
3:52
the full moon It was even worse for
3:54
them.
3:54
I Imagine but anyway, there are some interesting
3:58
stories over there.
3:59
I got stuck on some Fixture known as
4:03
the whale which was a huge lava Huge
4:09
lava Basically a mountain and in a Humvee
4:14
that's kind of hard to do but I
4:16
figured it out.
4:17
I figured out how to do it and
4:19
how to get stuck in there and That
4:23
was entertaining.
4:24
Anyway, I don't know why I'm talking about
4:26
that this video on social media Shows the
4:32
fireball rising from the crash site So, I
4:35
doubt they'll be saving that airport or airplane
4:38
I mean and it it reminds me of
4:42
the the video from Who's the alien movie
4:48
with?
4:50
with Geez why can't I remember his name?
4:55
See I'm moving slow this morning.
4:56
It's a good thing It's a good thing.
4:58
I've decided to be lazy this morning.
4:59
So I don't have to remember it the
5:01
guy who punched Chris Rock that guy Was
5:05
a Interesting show called Independence Day But according
5:11
the Air Force the plane belonged to its
5:14
premier air demonstration squad And the pilot from
5:19
the US Air Demonstration team safely ejected from
5:22
the f-16 see fighting Falcon during the
5:25
training mission The pilot was in Stable condition
5:32
and did manage to receive some follow-up
5:36
care you can watch that on X there's
5:39
a interesting video earlier this year a Polish
5:43
Air Force f-16 that belonged to Poland's
5:48
Tiger demo aerobatic team died in a crash
5:53
During an air show after attempting a high
5:56
-speed barrel roll maneuver Speaking About
6:08
international affairs in Poland and everything that's going
6:12
on the old Putin was just in India
6:18
and You know, they put on a show
6:23
he and Modi met had had chats for
6:27
the whole day and And Russia through their
6:35
RT Russia Today news platform they have Started
6:42
a RT India and so they Put a
6:51
giant Matryoshka they installed They had a 5d
6:57
billboard and a Metro takeover everything was listed
7:01
with RT in RT India and the classic
7:06
neon green and You know a navy blue
7:10
that goes together.
7:11
So when they start broadcasting They started today.
7:16
It is A milestone and how glow if
7:20
you're now if you don't watch any India
7:23
TV Times of India has a good one
7:28
There's some some very good Channels out there
7:31
to listen to the news and that you
7:33
get you get a decent amount of in
7:36
-depth news from the Times of India and
7:41
This this launch has been in the works
7:43
for months and over the past two weeks
7:48
There's been visual runways Showcase of Russia India
7:53
friendship everywhere in in preparing for Putin's visit
7:58
oversized billboards Airport terminal screen loops Metro campaigns
8:06
across the yellow line one of the busiest
8:10
lines in the capital and this marketing blitz
8:14
has Created some debate and You know, there's
8:20
a international broadcaster coming in so There's Lots
8:29
of people taking great interest in this and
8:32
there's some good good videos this is comes
8:35
at a time when ties between New Delhi
8:38
and Moscow are being renewed being strengthened being
8:42
built and You know, this was the 23rd
8:47
annual they do this every year They have
8:50
an India Russia summit and so for decades
8:53
Russia has been one of India's most consistent
8:56
defense and energy partners and they put that
9:00
specifically as being consistent because we Are not
9:06
We are seen as not consistent.
9:09
We are seen as telling them what to
9:11
do just so, you know and It's India
9:16
Russia relations demonstrate a degree of resilience despite
9:20
the challenges of the recent years particularly Washington
9:25
censure of New Delhi's posture on Ukraine The
9:32
relationship has been susceptible to external president with
9:36
Trump's recent extra tariffs on New Delhi creating
9:40
big problems In this context RT India is
9:45
kind of a media bridge, you know where
9:47
they're you know, this is definitely their form
9:51
of Competing with Western propaganda and so you
9:56
guys know I listen to the lady follow
9:59
the president or the the general director of
10:04
RT worldwide is Margarita Simonyan And she's an
10:10
interesting person her husband died last year and
10:14
she's a very She likes to speak in
10:18
poetry and things like that.
10:19
She she's definitely one of those Sometimes, you
10:26
know a lot of a lot of Russians
10:27
are very emotional and very historic and when
10:29
they like to talk about you know things
10:33
mean a lot to them and they like
10:36
to put Existential meaning into things and she's
10:39
one of them and here's here's let's see
10:42
if I can translate this on the On
10:48
the fly here she's saying that the flow
10:51
of posts in social media X on the
10:55
platform X about our Themed train in New
11:02
Delhi Don't Stop, they keep they keep showing
11:06
on the day of the visit of the
11:08
president to President Putin to India You can
11:13
follow hashtag Putin in India it's on the
11:17
first page of all of the social media
11:21
sites according to what she said and senior
11:25
journalist in Delhi who has worked for More
11:29
than 30 years with various outlets said RT
11:32
the entry of RT is significant at this
11:36
moment because India has become a global news
11:40
hub not just because of its own stories
11:42
because the world watches what happens here.
11:45
I Mean, geez, they are a huge population
11:49
how their largest population in in the world
11:53
1.4 something billion just under 1.5
11:57
billion people And for Russia have an RT
12:00
India means being part of a huge media
12:03
landscape shaping Asia With India at the heart
12:07
of it undoubtedly India is one of the
12:10
world's fastest growing media and other markets So
12:16
These are these are important times right Here's
12:22
another story from Russia India ties which are
12:26
strengthening everywhere Largest bank Russia's largest bank is
12:32
gonna triple its operations in India's Fairbank and
12:36
I have a spare bank account, you know,
12:39
well not an account you if you travel
12:42
in Russia, you you you know have two
12:45
choices you either pay with cash or you
12:48
You know with all the sanctions used to
12:50
be I'd go over there with my capital
12:51
one guard, you know and be able and
12:55
be just fine and Because you could use
12:57
your capital one all over the world well
13:00
not anymore you can use it all in
13:02
the world just not in Russia and so
13:05
when you go over there, it's either carry
13:07
around cash or you go into a spare
13:11
bank and get a I suppose the equivalent
13:13
over here would be a Venmo or or
13:16
a Cash app card something like that where
13:21
you don't have to have an account in
13:22
a bank You just got get a card,
13:25
but there you have to get it in
13:27
the bank you know, I assume there's other
13:29
ones too, but the the standard is to
13:32
go into The banks Fairbank in Russia and
13:38
get get a card so you can pay
13:41
for everything so you can pay for it
13:42
with your phone and pay for it with
13:44
you know, you just add some money on
13:46
there and then you pay for everything that
13:48
way and so This bank's Fairbank is the
13:54
biggest bank in in Russia now the largest
13:57
lender Plans to triple the size of its
14:00
operations in India Now a lot of this
14:03
is coming up because of bricks, you know
14:06
And because of the various platforms that they
14:09
are creating in Russia, you can still use
14:12
I forget the name of the platform that
14:15
you know is the biggest in Bangalore and
14:18
Hyderabad India and you can use them in
14:22
Russia as well and you can use Chinese
14:25
system I Forget what theirs is called too.
14:29
But the the Russian system is called mirror
14:32
Which is is kind of a dual word.
14:35
It means both peace and world and so
14:39
it The mirror card is basically the world
14:43
card and you can use your mirror card
14:47
In a lot of places There's even some
14:50
in New York and in Miami, you know
14:52
bigger cities here in America where you can
14:54
use your mirror card but you can use
14:55
it just about everywhere in China and Just
14:59
about everywhere in India and the reverse is
15:01
also true They are fostering, you know and
15:04
they're getting I don't say they're getting rid
15:06
of because the biggest in the world is
15:08
still a MasterCard visa, you know, but the
15:12
world's change in Especially in the world of
15:15
sanctions people don't want to people don't want
15:18
to Put up with that so in the
15:21
next five years They plan to triple spare
15:25
bunk plans to triple their resources in India
15:29
especially in Bangalore and Hyderabad and sphere has
15:32
more than 3.5 million Russian companies as
15:35
clients and a huge number of employees and
15:40
So They're moving away from being a triple
15:44
bank and toward being Technology focused firm and
15:47
like an like Amazon Google or Apple and
15:50
they've expanded You know quite a bit in
15:53
the last few years and into a lot
15:57
of things and Years ago this guy said
16:03
he had a cut this graph the CEO
16:06
of spare bunk had a conversation with Putin
16:11
several years ago and He wanted to know
16:15
if the world would soon see a virtual
16:17
or a I CEO And he said I
16:21
think it's impossible in the next five years
16:24
maybe but in the long term It's definitely
16:26
a possibility said that everything from generative AI
16:29
to digital payments cybersecurity and FinTech is Material
16:35
to building a technological bridge between India and
16:39
Russia and the company is already a leader
16:42
in Russia the biggest In in tech and
16:46
according to graph India will be one of
16:48
the top markets for the next 20 years
16:50
Worldwide and spare bunk is going to do
16:52
everything to enlarge its business in the country
16:55
and it has agreed to bring school 21
16:57
a free Russian engineering school to India and
17:01
That'll harness the potential of a vast young
17:04
population, especially internationally Spare past as the highest
17:09
quality chip set architecture and as a good
17:12
partner for India, so they have a Russian
17:17
private investor form And and they can invest
17:22
in the national stock exchanges nifty 50 an
17:25
index of 50 Indian blue chips Company and
17:28
they expect that 20 percent annual growth from
17:32
this investment So, you know, there's big business
17:35
going on over there and then they're doing
17:38
the same in energy from small modular reactors
17:43
to rare-earth mining memory told news a
17:46
couple of months ago about Russia building one
17:49
of the largest nuclear power plants in the
17:52
world with the six reactors in it That
17:56
they're building and they've There there's some very
18:02
serious partnerships going on is and so And
18:08
also this rare-earth mining and things like
18:10
that India's energy demand Continues to climb.
18:14
That's why they can't give up on the
18:16
oil, you know and can't not buy oil
18:19
from Russia they have to do it and
18:21
Modi has been pretty Pretty straight up about
18:27
it Jai Shankar has been very Straight up
18:32
about it that you know Sanctions are not
18:35
you can't stop us from Buying things that
18:39
our people need And you know if we
18:42
where else we gonna get it, you know
18:44
from you I don't think so.
18:47
So as of late 2025 to India's total
18:50
installed electricity capacity surpassed 1,500 gigawatt with
18:57
more than 51% of that coming from
19:00
non-fossil fuels and this clean power is
19:07
Bless me, sorry about that Now as an
19:10
important safety tip when I sneeze they usually
19:12
come in threes people.
19:14
So and that You try to stop them
19:20
and you can't then it's unfortunate, but sorry
19:23
about that The the shift to clean power
19:25
is visible an actual generation of it to
19:28
and over the first half of 2025 utilities
19:31
have produced a record 236 terawatt hours of
19:36
clean energy and Renewables, they still cannot meet
19:41
India's needs, you know, especially in industry Nuclear
19:46
is indispensable to them.
19:48
It they expect the capacity from nuclear to
19:52
go up by 100 Gigawatt in in the
19:57
by 2047 and they have a huge India
20:01
Russia civil nuclear partnership For India India this
20:07
partnership means energy security stable carbon supply rapid
20:11
decarbonization It also supports India's shift toward mineral
20:15
sovereignty Breaking dependence on China for rare-earth
20:19
is Central to their EV battery and clean
20:23
tech manufacturing.
20:24
And so they just approved 815 point seven
20:29
million dollar rare-earth permanent magnet manufacturing program
20:36
that boosts You know plenty of capacity for
20:40
them.
20:40
And so there's a lot going on So
20:46
a lot going on in international trade that
20:50
we might not hear as much about Over
20:53
here.
20:53
There were a couple of opinion pieces that
20:56
I wished to share with you and one
21:01
of them is about the s400 which is
21:09
a Russian air defense system and And Really?
21:17
Everybody wants these the hardware has proven itself,
21:21
you know quite capable time and timing in
21:25
air rates this s400 so He while visiting
21:30
India again You know, there's a very special
21:38
strategic partnership between Moscow and New Delhi and
21:41
Their speculation that the countries were going to
21:44
agree on the deliveries of These weapons the
21:48
Indian Defense Minister Rajna Singh indicated that during
21:52
the meeting with Putin and Modi the supply
21:56
of additional s400 systems were going to be
21:59
discussed and the technology, you know and Is
22:05
proving itself and so about 200 fixed-wing
22:09
unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down during the
22:13
most recent Ukrainian air raid on Russia and
22:17
according to the information that we have combined
22:20
air defense battalions Were employed in repelling the
22:24
attacks in addition to the panzer and the
22:27
tour surface-to-air missile subsystems These units
22:30
include the long and medium range s400 triumph
22:34
surface-to-air missile system and as the
22:38
military Acknowledges these system are tuned for other
22:43
enemy targets primarily Western made ballistic and cruise
22:46
Mr. Missiles like the attack comes a storm
22:48
shadow and on November 18th the Ukrainian Armed
22:52
Forces attacked Voronezh with four attack of missiles
22:56
and As reported by the Ministry of Defense
22:59
the s400 systems and panzer systems and gun
23:02
systems took part in intercepting these targets and
23:06
debris from these missiles which They know were
23:10
aimed at civilian facilities damaged roofs of several
23:14
buildings But there were no casualties and attack
23:17
comes are quite a difficult target, but not
23:20
for the s400 System is capable of engaging
23:24
targets at ranges from 60 kilometers and altitudes
23:27
of 25 kilometers so the speed of an
23:30
intercepted missile can be hypersonic and You know
23:36
14 times the speed of sound so the
23:39
strike on the Russian city That was repelled
23:41
is one of the s400 effective combat Capabilities
23:48
and there are others like combating guided rockets
23:52
of high Mars multiple launch rocket systems, you
23:56
know also American manufacturer and the Russian Surface
24:01
-to-air system is considered to be just
24:04
destroying in the air and surface-to-air
24:07
guided missiles You know they they are are
24:13
Outperforming by any military equation the M104 Patriot
24:22
they are they're defeating them this summer it
24:24
became known that air defense troops shot down
24:27
about two dozen Western made missiles with which
24:31
the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to strike aircraft
24:33
of the Russian Aerospace Forces and Unlike attack
24:37
comes and high Mars which fly along predictable
24:40
virtually Well, but just ballistic so ballistic missiles
24:46
you program them and off they fly, and
24:48
they don't change Surface-to-air missile systems
24:53
maneuver actively in flight right and so it's
24:57
the s 400 system that can intercept such
25:03
Missiles so the s400 is one of the
25:06
most modern and best known surface-to-air
25:08
missile systems in the world The range and
25:12
ability to use different types of missiles which
25:15
you know maneuverable missiles Make the triumph the
25:18
most powerful air defense system its performance parameters
25:22
have been Confirmed in real combat and so
25:25
far no foreign air defense system including the
25:28
Patriot can compete with the s400 and Russian
25:33
air defense systems consistently attract the interest of
25:36
foreign customers and The first foreign buyer of
25:40
the s400 was China of course Moscow and
25:44
Beijing reached an agreement to supply several battalions
25:47
of the this Russian surface-to-air system
25:51
2017 Contract was signed to supply the triumph
25:56
to a NATO country Turkey so Turkey is
25:59
using the s400 and in October 2018 during
26:03
Putin's You know annual visit to India the
26:07
largest deal in the history of military technical
26:09
cooperation between the two countries was Concluded a
26:14
contract for five point four three billion dollars
26:19
To supply five regimental sets of the s400
26:23
to them and there's news about this type
26:28
of thing all of the time and so
26:31
part of me gets to thinking about this
26:34
and how our military industrial complex has been
26:46
Expanding and fighting and Controlling the US government
26:52
for as long as it has and a
26:55
part of me thinks that that this sort
26:58
of loss in Purchases which India you know
27:02
you always years ago China you would think
27:05
they were buying things from us.
27:07
You know the rest of the world is
27:08
gonna buy things from us The the permanent
27:11
conduit for us for is you know?
27:15
Shrinking and NATO of course is all well
27:19
We don't even know if always it's probably
27:21
a bad thing to say always gonna be
27:23
there for our military industrial complex but The
27:28
other other areas of the world are catching
27:31
up in this regard And so I think
27:34
it's something worthy of discussion and worthy of
27:37
talking about to understand that That you know
27:43
bricks isn't going away, you know, I think
27:46
I think it was significant What I reported
27:50
over the last couple of days that that
27:53
Russia doesn't Anticipate Getting back into the g
28:00
-8.
28:01
They don't see it as important Putin had
28:03
his commentary on that the other day where
28:06
he was saying that You know that that
28:10
Platform if you will that organization is diminishing
28:15
we're gonna go where the go where the
28:18
money go where the growth go where the
28:20
infrastructure is and There's plenty of infrastructure for
28:27
for Them that they they keep building man
28:33
somebody now even on JR's TV You're seeing
28:36
advertisements for for going to Turkey and Wow
28:43
Again, I'd get I'd say go to Turkey
28:46
if you can, you know, if I find
28:48
out a way to get there It's freaking
28:49
fantastic and it's beautiful.
28:51
It's modern.
28:53
It's Mostly affordable so I Maybe
29:04
I should tell you a story about about
29:06
that.
29:06
I was Leaving Istanbul and the flight was
29:11
supposed to leave on a Sunday.
29:13
I've been there three four days my travel
29:18
companion and I were Just wandering around, you
29:23
know fill it and we took a morning
29:26
cruise on the Bosphorus Straits and went we
29:31
had a had a coffee I like to
29:33
get up and go to a coffee shop.
29:35
You can get Turkish coffee, which is fantastic
29:37
and They serve it to you and very
29:41
formal, you know cool little places you go
29:43
to some of these or you can just
29:44
go get a regular a regular coffee somewhere,
29:49
you know, there are plenty of little coffee
29:50
shops around and It'd been a really nice
29:56
Sunday, you know went to a tour of
30:00
a mosque Right right on the Banks Of
30:08
the of the Bosphorus is a huge huge
30:11
and if it's enormous You wouldn't believe how
30:14
big this was and there's a soccer field
30:17
right down there for the Turkish national soccer
30:20
team and So it was it was kind
30:24
of cool walking around down there shops all
30:26
open, you know for For walking around and
30:30
buying cool things there, you know, like any
30:34
wharf that you would go to those it
30:36
was really cool and We decided to have
30:42
a Meal so I had exchanged a bunch
30:46
of Lira I'd gotten lira instead of dollars
30:51
and I was like, well, I probably had
30:54
a $120 worth let's call it at 120
30:59
bucks worth of lira No, probably more 180
31:04
200 bucks maybe and we went into some
31:07
Seafood restaurant right on the right on the
31:11
water and all glass windows, you know And
31:14
they had opened the windows the Sun was
31:16
coming in really.
31:17
Well, it's like July August and it was
31:20
just a Fantastic, you know people there and
31:23
they had a Sunday sort of a brunch
31:25
and you walk in and there's a Kind
31:30
of a no, it was an interesting Concept
31:35
for a restaurant you walk past this kind
31:39
of a cold counter and in this cold
31:41
counter there were things like I don't know
31:45
crab salad.
31:46
There were things like Crab legs, there was
31:50
all kinds of seafood in there You know
31:55
Shrimp and fish, you know, and you would
31:57
pick your fish off of the ice So
32:01
the fish is laying on the ice and
32:03
you say I want this fish I want
32:05
you to cook this fish for me and
32:07
there was a type of fish that was
32:11
They slice it in half for the two
32:14
of us and so they they fillet it,
32:17
you know down down the spine of the
32:20
of the fish and they they split it
32:23
up for you and they fry it up
32:25
to bring it out to you with some
32:26
some various things and and You can go
32:30
to this buffet sort of line and pick
32:33
up other things and and we were in
32:36
there we had Whether it was a beer
32:40
or wines probably a wine I had a
32:42
wine a coffee, you know Bottle of water
32:46
and then a meal and sat there and
32:49
ate this meal and I didn't Think much
32:52
of it.
32:53
I was like, you know, there's It was
32:55
a nice restaurant, but I'm sitting there thinking,
32:59
you know, there's no way this is gonna
33:00
be more than the 150, you know, even
33:04
if it turns into a Bad, you know
33:09
something that is is higher my my Nearly
33:14
two hundred dollars would certainly cover, you know
33:17
lunch in Turkey Lunch in Turkey famous last
33:23
words whether that was because And I don't
33:27
remember what the exchange rate was, but the
33:29
bill came and I got a picture of
33:31
it somewhere.
33:32
I couldn't believe it Because and I was
33:35
all finished and when I walked out I
33:37
saw a couple of things that that You
33:42
know, I really liked I there was a
33:45
a snow crab that was some cold snow
33:51
crab and There was a king crab salad
33:56
and I meant I was just you know
34:00
a small little dish of These couple of
34:05
things I got I got a Little bowl
34:08
of crab and I got a little a
34:11
little Dish of something else when I was
34:15
I had walked past it again go the
34:17
restroom I was like, I'm gonna add these
34:19
things and you know, bring them back to
34:22
my to my table for me and he
34:25
brought him over there and Apparently Important safety
34:33
tip when you go to a foreign country,
34:35
you know This is the this is definitely
34:37
the worst story of it all the very
34:40
worst and when the bill came the bill
34:44
came to something like 18,000 and some
34:48
odd lira Which at the time came out
34:52
to get this the entire meal and it
34:55
wasn't the fish was, you know Reasonable the
34:59
the the two sides or whatever you got
35:01
with the fish the drinks are okay You
35:03
know it was on the the banks I
35:06
anticipated it being a hundred to $150 the
35:10
entire bill was nearly $500 and I about
35:16
came unglued, you know, I was like, oh
35:20
my god in You know, my wife speaks
35:23
Turkish and so she was like this is
35:26
what you don't do she go I was
35:29
like, you know help me out with this.
35:30
I'm sitting here looking at the bill and
35:32
lira I was like, it's a shit pot
35:34
of lira there Well, what in the world
35:38
is this and she calls the the waiter
35:40
over and he said that the king crab
35:42
legs that I got there are the chunks
35:45
of king crab legs were a Hundred-and
35:49
-twenty dollars for just these little chunks of
35:52
it now and then I got whatever the
35:56
other dish was that was just a small
35:58
dish of some sort of I forget what
36:04
it was, but it was also Western like
36:07
you'd get it in like, I don't know
36:11
lobster or something like that from East Coast
36:14
lobster Maine lobster perhaps and that was Those
36:19
two items if I hadn't have picked them
36:22
up my bill would have been under 200
36:26
bucks, but each one of those is like
36:28
a hundred and forty bucks a piece or
36:30
something and Because they are only by import
36:34
you can only get them and there I'm
36:37
some rich American yeah, not and Some rich
36:41
American eat over there and so important safety
36:45
tip if you When you think you know,
36:49
I did that once it What's it called
36:54
hooked here and I Wanted I wasn't paying
36:58
attention, you know, I was all by myself
37:00
I went up to the bar and I
37:02
was going to dinner.
37:03
I went up and I had dinner.
37:05
This is a couple years ago and I
37:09
Went up to the bar sat down and
37:11
ordered, you know, I was by myself It
37:13
was like, you know, I'm gonna or you
37:14
know, give me I had a coffee.
37:17
I had a whiskey I had a You
37:21
know and over there they put the I
37:23
can't remember if they're around or square but
37:25
they have the one huge ice cube and
37:28
I get Knob Creek whiskey is what I
37:29
like and they they poured a You know
37:32
one small deal and it's a it's a
37:34
Eve.
37:35
I call it my sipping tea, you know
37:37
I don't drink very often but if I'm
37:40
going to it'll be an after dinner or
37:42
something like that, or maybe I'll have a
37:45
Stella a beer with with lunch or something
37:48
there or dinner, but I don't drink that
37:51
much these days and haven't for quite a
37:54
few years now and it so I had
37:58
a Beer, I'm sorry.
38:01
Not if I had a coffee I had
38:02
a whiskey and I ordered the crab legs
38:05
with whatever you get with it, you know
38:07
the Alaskan king crab legs and I Couldn't
38:12
imagine it being you know hundred bucks, you
38:17
know, even all by myself I figured that
38:20
that bill would cost me somewhere in the
38:22
neighborhood of I thought about it, maybe $70
38:26
and When the bill came the bill came
38:33
Fell off the barstool.
38:35
I was like you got to be kidding
38:37
me.
38:37
It was don't nearly it was like 190
38:41
185 dollars no tip.
38:43
No, nothing just hundred and I was like,
38:45
holy crap.
38:46
I was like, what did I eat?
38:48
You know, it wasn't it was just you
38:50
didn't even get a full pound of crab
38:52
legs It was like a half a pound.
38:54
It was a Not a big order.
38:56
So, you know if you're buying that sort
38:58
of stuff these days, you're getting hosed and
39:01
I Definitely got gut and not hosed.
39:05
It's just something you got to pay attention
39:07
to the market price and apparently I hadn't
39:10
been paying attention to What do you call
39:14
it Inflation of your king crab legs, so
39:21
now And I probably should have been in
39:24
Turkey.
39:25
You would have think I'd have paid attention
39:27
to it, but I couldn't imagine Spending 200.
39:30
I mean you go to a nice restaurant
39:31
here a really nice restaurant around here there's
39:33
no way you're gonna spend over 200 bucks,
39:36
you know what I mean and Well normally
39:39
but Depends on what you do, but a
39:41
regular meal like that.
39:43
I couldn't believe it So important travel safety
39:46
tips, especially if you're gonna be on the
39:48
Bosphorus and looking out over the the beautiful
39:53
Bosphorus Straits and in a downtown Very much
39:59
downtown near near the big mosque watch out
40:03
if you're ordering Western Fish and not the
40:07
because the big fish the one that they
40:09
filleted for us down the middle I wish
40:11
I could remember the name of the fish,
40:12
but they had filleted down the middle for
40:15
us.
40:15
That was very filling It was a decent
40:18
sized fish.
40:19
It was fantastic taste.
40:21
It was all good and just just ton
40:25
of money so you can spend a lot
40:28
of money in in Turkey, but you really
40:31
got to be an idiot, you know on
40:35
your travel stories and normally When I go
40:40
other countries, it's really you can eat you
40:43
don't you tend not to pay as much
40:46
attention because food the staple of food is
40:51
Quite cheap Everywhere else.
40:54
I mean that same meal in Russia Wouldn't
40:59
it cost me?
41:01
30 bucks, you know, it's a you can
41:06
you can Eat just about anything you want
41:09
and not have to worry about you know
41:12
What the cost of it is one of
41:16
my first experiences with that when I was
41:19
a?
41:20
Diplomatic passport holder back in the 90s and
41:23
I was in Moldova And during one of
41:26
these formal deals where you had to you
41:32
know Get together and you it was more
41:33
of a it was more of a formal
41:35
meeting than it was just a few people
41:37
going out and getting something to to nibble
41:41
upon you know, it was it wasn't just
41:44
a group of friends this was a Diplomatic
41:47
event and we were supposed to you know
41:51
Pay attention to them.
41:53
And so, you know pay it to pay
41:55
attention to each other and do something together
41:58
and we were having discussions a far more
42:02
about political and diplomatic event and so that
42:09
Meal six courses, you know, you had a
42:13
Borscht a soup, you know you in several
42:16
different versions They have great soups over there
42:18
and you know cold soups hot soups that
42:21
you can eat.
42:22
They'd have the as a kuski the little
42:26
Appetizer sorts of things that you would get
42:29
and then you work your way up to
42:34
Round six of the food that's coming by
42:37
which included alcohol, you know wine for everyone
42:40
things like that And there was a table
42:43
with about 10 12 people at it and
42:47
in the 90s.
42:48
We had this full meal all of this
42:52
everybody eating anything that they wanted and In
42:58
in Moldova, and I'm the one paying for
43:01
it at the end for the whole group
43:04
and the entire bill for all of us
43:08
with Fantastic food was under $30 and so
43:15
There in there are places Even today where
43:19
you go?
43:19
I was telling you about Bishkek and you
43:21
could go to Bishkek or Giza Kyrgyzstan and
43:24
go anywhere you want and Get excellent food
43:29
Uzbeki food is fantastic and when you're in
43:32
Uzbekistan, you can get all kinds of food
43:35
for for nearly nothing and You do it's
43:40
something that you don't normally pay attention to
43:42
in foreign countries How much the cost of
43:44
the the food is you know, especially if
43:46
it's not a resort town or something in
43:50
a resort town you'll pay a little bit
43:51
more but even then it's generally pretty low
43:55
and You know you can you have to
43:58
watch that that hard, you know I mean
44:01
hell even when I lived in Qatar you
44:03
could go to Qatar on a And go
44:05
with the what the Westerners used to do
44:08
is in Qatar this was a little different
44:11
than many other Arabic Islamic countries, but on
44:15
Fridays Friday is the Sabbath.
44:17
Okay for them.
44:18
That's their that's their day of Worship, but
44:23
for Westerners Friday is the opposite So the
44:25
work week went from Sunday to Thursday, so
44:28
you you know, you would work on Sunday
44:30
Thursday I only had a three-day work
44:32
week.
44:32
I worked from Monday to Wednesday so I
44:34
had a four-day weekend basically every weekend
44:36
when I worked over there and but on
44:40
Fridays, especially my my South African buddy and
44:43
I we would like to go to It
44:45
was very popular to have a an all
44:49
day You would go to a buffet starting
44:53
at at You know ten o'clock eleven
44:58
o'clock in the morning on a Sunday
45:00
And that was a weekend day Well, there's
45:07
something was actually Friday, you know for us
45:09
that's a Friday but for them that was
45:12
the Sabbath and then it was the start
45:14
of You know Saturday Saturday you would be
45:18
Was that would be our Sunday over here?
45:21
And so this is basically a Saturday night
45:24
Would be over here, but you spent the
45:26
entire day on a Saturday From 10 o
45:31
'clock to As late as you wanted pay
45:35
hundred bucks, okay $100 and All you can
45:41
eat all you can drink all day long
45:44
up far into the night anything you wanted
45:47
to do was Usually and it was actually
45:51
a hundred What was the real I think
45:54
was the name of the of the currency
45:56
over there was a hundred real Which is
45:59
pegged to the US dollar.
46:01
It was $85 and so for 85 bucks
46:04
you could You could go and do that.
46:08
So even Qatar you could you know food
46:10
wasn't is not very and that's richest country
46:14
in the world and they In this five
46:18
-star food.
46:19
I mean this was fantastic stuff.
46:21
Turkey's not that far away And I got
46:24
juiced anyway, that was a long-ass story
46:27
of Stupidity that has nothing to do with
46:30
anything.
46:30
Don't know why I told it to you
46:32
But sometimes I just get in storytelling mode
46:35
and I haven't been feeling well, and I'm
46:38
still stuffy sniffly sneezy What's that A Stuffy
46:47
head clearing so so you can rest medicine
46:49
whatever that commercial was I need some of
46:51
that stuff see if I can be drugged
46:53
up again today anyway, that those tales and
46:56
stories of Sam and some of the stuff
46:59
that I have craziness that I found myself
47:02
into by the same token if you you
47:04
know in Sri Lanka when I went to
47:06
Sri Lanka took my Son will the Sri
47:08
Lanka with me is about 15 16 and
47:12
we went to Sri Lanka spent I don't
47:14
remember five six days there and taking him
47:18
out to dinner and That kid is my
47:21
largest child.
47:23
He six foot two three big I'm like
47:28
wow, this is the things I produce Is
47:33
a big kid looks it look like a
47:35
big football player, you know, which you know,
47:37
you know me I'm not you know, I
47:39
got a belly but not even too dramatic
47:43
on the belly but bit wills big dude
47:45
and We could go he could put away
47:48
some groceries and we would we go out
47:51
to eat over there It was nothing Sri
47:52
Lanka nothing most country in Morocco.
47:55
Not a whole lot, you know Portugal, you
47:59
know Spain, you know Anyway, Germany was a
48:04
bit on the steep side Austria was a
48:05
you get into Europe and your equivalent to
48:08
the you what you there you'd you'd watch
48:10
out but I never thought that about Turkey
48:12
and Just Anyway, that's the end of that
48:18
story.
48:18
I'll get off of that.
48:19
I wanted to talk about some current events
48:23
going on around the world like an Important
48:27
story that it came out is Israel a
48:31
story about Israel now think about this the
48:34
headline of the story is Israel is considering
48:39
in their likelihood of adoption is From the
48:44
various stories that I've seen on it is
48:46
pretty likely they want to start deporting Ukrainians
48:53
next month and Only a few weeks remain
48:57
before protection status expires For Ukrainians so tens
49:02
of thousands of Ukrainian migrants in Israel could
49:06
be deported next month Due to a delay
49:09
by the government in extending their legal status
49:14
so people are starting the Welcome mats are
49:20
rolling up around the world Europe's been talking
49:24
about sending the men especially back The group
49:33
protections granted to Ukrainian since 2022 requires an
49:40
annual renewal with current permits expiring at the
49:45
end of December and Israel has not been
49:50
Particularly welcoming toward many Ukrainians, especially those ineligible
49:55
under the law of return non-jewish Ukrainians
50:00
Receive only temporary status they face restrictive entry
50:04
and are excluded from long-term Residency social
50:08
support stuff.
50:10
They don't get freebies and that leave many
50:12
of them in legal and economic troubles You
50:16
know and in the absence of an acting
50:18
interior minister and the authority over this manager
50:22
matter has shifted to Benjamin Netanyahu, but he
50:27
hasn't yet made a decision and The Israeli
50:33
population and immigration authority has said the issue
50:36
is under review decision will be announced but
50:39
in the EU Support for Ukrainian migrants is
50:43
under strain.
50:44
There are several governments Reducing these aid programs,
50:48
you know these aid programs were in the
50:50
fourth year of living free only because you're
50:55
Ukrainian and The u.s. Has been pretty
50:58
generous with that too.
51:00
And we have given the you for you
51:03
status has has given Ukrainian nationals A Social
51:10
-security money they come in and immediately sign
51:13
up for Social Security and not all of
51:16
them, you know, but it's a pretty big
51:19
freaking number and there are plenty of them
51:23
all over Europe and they swap between country
51:26
to country so the funny part and it's
51:28
not funny and funny meaning ridiculous part is
51:32
that if you let's say you Leave Ukraine
51:36
and come into Poland and Poland gives you
51:42
a year of free housing free money food
51:48
cards stuff like that, which is pretty standard
51:52
for You know because you're Ukrainian If it
51:57
runs out, let's say you get a six
51:59
-month a six-month stipend for this.
52:03
That's your Automatically entitled to six months for
52:06
this Well the what they've been doing and
52:10
especially the ages of 18 to 25 They've
52:13
been you know These refugee status that you
52:16
run out of Ukraine and you come into
52:19
Poland Do you get six months of and
52:21
I don't remember the exact number of months,
52:23
but you get six months of free Living
52:27
expenses including housing including everything that Retirees don't
52:32
get okay, you get more money than the
52:35
retirees get in the social they've worked from
52:38
their whole lives that's my problem with the
52:40
program in the u.s. To because Social
52:43
Security is intended for those either on disability
52:46
or those who have retired Or Ukrainians because
52:51
you get to come in and pick that
52:53
up for free and you can get on
52:54
Social Security in here It's unlimited you get
52:57
it you get it, right and you for
53:00
you was supposed to have done something for
53:02
that as well Limiting how much they get
53:10
but it's gotten it's actually gone up Well
53:13
what they were doing and this is their
53:15
stories all over of this is they'd go
53:17
into Poland run out Move to Germany get
53:21
you know the same amount go to France
53:23
go to England just bounce around between various
53:26
states So the the ridiculous and funny part
53:29
of it is is that?
53:32
EU countries are If you're so if your
53:38
economy is all forced into the euro and
53:41
Everybody gets to euro and they have open
53:43
borders between the economic Union which they do
53:49
so if you have a Schengen visa and
53:51
you come into Poland you can get into
53:53
Germany without having to Recertify and but if
53:58
you're a Ukrainian Refugee you can get you
54:01
know expire your your benefits in Poland move
54:06
to Germany pick them up, you know go
54:09
to Lithuania and get the same thing and
54:13
and all they are doing is bouncing around
54:15
To various countries and none of them are
54:18
working and people are getting sick of it.
54:22
You know they You know why you know
54:24
they get it do that and and as
54:27
a Polish citizen You couldn't just leave Poland
54:29
and go to Germany and get freebies but
54:33
the system is being seriously abused there are
54:36
tons of stories about this and It's there
54:40
remember the video.
54:41
I shared with you.
54:42
Maybe not but quite a few months ago
54:45
I shared one of you of a couple
54:47
of tourist Ukrainians that's what they call them
54:51
that went to China and they were all
54:55
they're doing is traveling there they're traveling they're
54:58
living off of this free money that they
55:00
get and this girl goes over is on
55:02
tik-tok channel and goes over to China
55:06
and She's bitching she's complaining because and her
55:10
and her friend are on there complaining.
55:12
They're very very young 20s Early 20s and
55:16
going well here.
55:18
We are we've been three days in Beijing,
55:21
and it's beautiful.
55:22
It's fantastic there's so much to see and
55:24
so much to do but They told us
55:29
that all we get is three days of
55:33
Free you know housing and free money, so
55:37
we can't come here You know we'll just
55:40
go back to to another country.
55:42
We'll go back to another country and In
55:46
Europe, we'll just go back to Europe, but
55:48
we're not gonna work We're complaining that they
55:53
might have to work because China makes you
55:55
work to get the money well American doesn't
55:58
neither does Europe and so that's what they
56:01
were doing so the Israeli population is under
56:05
-reviewed the support for Ukrainian migrants in the
56:08
EU is reduced several Governments have lowered the
56:13
aid programs According to Eurostat the number of
56:17
military-aged Ukrainian men arriving in the EU
56:22
Has increased huge following This decision to relax
56:29
travel restrictions for men aged 18 to 22
56:34
so because member you're not Service eligible till
56:38
you hit 25 and so they have severe
56:42
manpower problems But they won't lower the age
56:45
because you know they won't lower it So
56:47
Germany and Poland the two EU members that
56:49
host the largest number of Ukrainians are Have
56:53
tightened benefits as well amid a drop in
56:56
public support Polish president Karol Nowrocki said last
57:01
month that he would not extend welfare payments
57:05
for Ukrainian migrants beyond 2026 so they get
57:09
an oh gee you only get another year
57:12
Polish people's perception of refugees is as you
57:16
know dropped the dramatically since 2022 and because
57:23
you know they're they're Funding all of this
57:27
and Ukrainian youths were behind nearly a thousand
57:30
police calls over fighting alcohol abuse weapons in
57:35
one of Warsaw's Central Parks this year, and
57:38
that's from the Newspaper we borscht got reported
57:43
this week, and then there's stories now of
57:49
Polish students that brutally beat up Ukrainian classmates
57:54
one school teachers called the victims scum and
57:59
So students at the school in Poland and
58:02
beaten up several of their Ukrainian classmates after
58:05
a teacher Called them scum one incident took
58:09
place in the technical school and sloops In
58:12
northern Poland where Ukrainian teenagers were enrolled in
58:15
vocational courses The the teachers are calling the
58:22
Ukrainians scum and warning they would fail their
58:26
exams Because the Polish students were better.
58:29
You know the parents of the Ukrainians that
58:32
were beat said one Polish student Played the
58:37
sounds of falling bombs and rockets on his
58:40
phone during lessons you know telling everyone it's
58:44
time to hide and the teacher didn't intervene
58:46
and so they're all complaining about that, but
58:51
They the situation is escalating You know and
58:55
the attackers are you know spitting on Ukrainian
58:59
young men and saying you know go back
59:01
to the front Ukrainian So and so and
59:05
then They they beat them up, and I'm
59:10
not saying I agree with that.
59:12
I know he's say that to point out
59:15
that There there's varying perspectives on how this
59:23
this is Playing out these days So it's
59:38
Rough world out there for them no matter
59:41
how you slice it You know how do
59:42
you how do you equate it to either
59:44
stick around wait till you turn 25 and
59:47
let them?
59:48
Send you to the front to die you
59:50
know or Go to another country try to
59:54
start a new life somehow with government funding
59:58
usually and You know have have people You
1:00:04
know beating up your kids, it's not good,
1:00:07
so There there's plenty of plenty of news
1:00:11
on all of this there's Lots going on
1:00:20
the The EU's Ex-top diplomat have you
1:00:26
heard about this Federica Mogherini?
1:00:29
She stepped down after being charged with corruption
1:00:32
from her college post So this this corruption
1:00:36
probe all over the place Ukraine started is
1:00:41
spreading People are definitely checking it out Mogherini
1:00:47
was detection used to be in charge of
1:00:51
the EU and she's detained for questioning on
1:00:55
Tuesday she was the European Commission vice president
1:01:00
for foreign policy from 2014 to 19 She
1:01:05
Led the European External Action Service, and she
1:01:09
became a rector of a College of Europe
1:01:11
in 2020 and began a second five-year
1:01:14
term in September and she's now among three
1:01:19
suspects accused by the European Public Prosecutor's Office
1:01:23
of fraud corruption conflict of interest and breaches
1:01:28
of security over Diplomatic academies program she announced
1:01:33
her resignation Thursday and said she was stepping
1:01:38
aside in line with Fairness with which I've
1:01:43
always carried out my duties She says prosecutors
1:01:46
are investing whether she set up the Academy
1:01:50
and improperly steered money Toward the college they
1:01:54
have strong suspicions.
1:01:56
It was Confidential information that was shared with
1:01:59
candidates during the 2021-22 bid process they
1:02:03
gave an unfair advantage in the Academy opened
1:02:06
in 2023 with a budget of 1 million
1:02:09
dollars and other suspects Includes Stefano Sunino who
1:02:15
served as Secretary General from 21 to 24
1:02:17
Sunino said Wednesday He would retire at the
1:02:20
end of the month from his European Commission
1:02:24
post Analysts cited by Politico say the scandal
1:02:28
could be one of Brussels biggest crises in
1:02:31
years sharpening the scrutiny of EU bodies as
1:02:36
they pressure other countries to limit their own
1:02:40
corruption and so This affair has revived political
1:02:45
pressure on current president Ursula von der Leyen
1:02:49
And they want to seek her removal for
1:02:52
some of the same things in light of
1:02:54
this scandal Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter So Giardo
1:02:57
has accused Brussels of turning a blind eye
1:03:00
to the rampant corruption in Ukraine and says
1:03:03
that drawing attention to it would risk exposing
1:03:07
similar problems in the EU itself, so Don't
1:03:12
point out other people's corruption or your own
1:03:15
is going to come back and bite you
1:03:17
in the rear end And Ursula von der
1:03:20
Leyen Her corruption scandal could take her down
1:03:26
right and basically the The what do you
1:03:35
call it tendon of the The holding of
1:03:41
the position by her her her holding the
1:03:44
position Is is now a current problem because
1:03:48
she's the one that is ignoring they are
1:03:50
all ignoring and saying give more money to
1:03:53
Ukraine when old Z monster shows up at
1:03:58
your at your doors.
1:03:59
Give him some more money and They all
1:04:02
are but people are you know?
1:04:04
The public is against it because of how
1:04:07
corrupt the vacuum of corruption that is Ukraine
1:04:11
and all the stolen money, but Ursula von
1:04:14
der Leyen is still sitting there saying send
1:04:17
more money their way and Politico's reporting on
1:04:21
Wednesday that she's in bad trouble Politically over
1:04:27
these these scandals in the wake of the
1:04:30
scandals von der Leyen is facing a challenge
1:04:33
to you know the accountability the largest Challenge
1:04:39
in a generation and her rivals are renewing
1:04:42
their calls for no-confidence votes against her
1:04:45
and according to the outlet the affair is
1:04:48
straining von der Leyen's relationship with Foreign policy
1:04:53
chief Kayak alice As the investigation centers on
1:04:57
activities linked to the external action service the
1:05:01
body that call us overseas I know people
1:05:04
who don't like von der Leyen will use
1:05:06
this against her But they use everything against
1:05:10
her one EU official said to political the
1:05:14
official attempted to defend Her because president von
1:05:18
der Leyen is the most identifiable leader in
1:05:21
Brussels.
1:05:21
We lay everything at her door But she's
1:05:26
not accountable for all institutions The scandal lands
1:05:31
on type top of Pfizer gate which centered
1:05:34
on von der Leyen's kovat 19 vaccine talks
1:05:38
with pharma giant Pfizer where the EU Commission
1:05:42
was criticized for refusal to disclose or preserve
1:05:47
Key text messages with the company's chief executive
1:05:51
The dispute prompted a no-confidence motion in
1:05:54
Parliament the EU Parliament which von der Leyen
1:05:57
did survive and she has also been seen
1:06:00
as the key proponent of militarizing the EU
1:06:04
and Arming Ukraine she's been pushing to use
1:06:10
the frozen Russian assets to Give them to
1:06:14
Kiev Through reparations loans the scheme, you know
1:06:21
Some people are for but Belgium is against
1:06:26
They host the funds and have warned of
1:06:28
enormous Geopolitical risks.
1:06:30
I told you that story the other day
1:06:33
about about that and so there's plenty of
1:06:38
corruption all over the place to go around
1:06:42
and that Is important to review?
1:06:48
I think it's important to to Discuss those
1:06:54
on a more regular basis, but nobody does
1:06:58
and I Did want to cover today a
1:07:02
little bit more of what Russia is doing
1:07:06
on the front and the the current state
1:07:10
of the the Frontline in Russia advancing and
1:07:19
they they are and It's How many you
1:07:29
know how many square kilometers but they're gaining
1:07:32
Basically all up and down the front lines.
1:07:36
They are gaining the Territories and this has
1:07:43
been going on for a while, you know,
1:07:49
it's Nobody is talking about it.
1:07:52
Certainly not enough that they are talking about
1:07:55
it.
1:07:55
It's not it's not even Being discussed in
1:08:02
many places.
1:08:03
So did you hear about the the Diving
1:08:10
champion the Ukrainian diving champion Who took Russian
1:08:15
citizenship recently and so Ukraine is all up
1:08:18
in arms about this European diving champion Sofia
1:08:23
leak soon has renounced her Ukrainian citizenship and
1:08:28
obtained a Russian passport citing political Political pressure
1:08:33
in Ukraine to cut ties with Russia the
1:08:38
head of Ukraine's National Olympic Committee Vadim good
1:08:42
site calls her decision a betrayal four-time
1:08:46
European champion and two-time Olympian leak soon
1:08:50
claimed she was repeatedly reprimanded for staying in
1:08:54
touch with her first coach who had relocated
1:08:57
to Moscow after the escalation the conflict in
1:09:01
2022 she said staff at training camps told
1:09:05
her that no one else has been in
1:09:08
contact with the Russians and She couldn't understand
1:09:11
why such remarks were directed at her the
1:09:15
23 year old Lugansk native argued that Ukraine
1:09:21
sport portrayed itself as outside of politics But
1:09:25
after athletes were always the first to feel
1:09:28
the pressure she stated that she experienced long
1:09:31
-standing dissatisfaction with training processes in Ukraine and
1:09:37
felt that professional requirements were not met and
1:09:41
Leak soon said she is now formally obtained
1:09:43
Russian citizenship plans to represent Russia internationally after
1:09:49
taking part in domestic competitions Her Transition comes
1:09:55
as international sports bodies have begun to adjust
1:09:59
eligibility rules for Russian athletes which have faced
1:10:03
restriction since the escalation world aquatics Announced that
1:10:08
excuse me that starting next year Russian and
1:10:12
Belarusian teams can return to global Competitions, but
1:10:16
under a neutral flag.
1:10:18
I think that's bs2 I Don't recall that
1:10:23
ever happening with countries that you didn't like
1:10:26
even if they were at war during Olympics
1:10:29
in the past That's supposed to be one
1:10:32
of the ways you rebuild bridges, but oh
1:10:35
no not us we we Cancel, you know
1:10:39
this cancel culture still exists last week the
1:10:43
International Judo Federation was the first Olympic store
1:10:48
sport body to restore Russian athletes right to
1:10:53
compete under their own national flag with anthem
1:10:56
and insignia beginning in the 2025 Abu Dhabi
1:11:00
Grand Slam Meanwhile the International Olympic Committee's new
1:11:04
president Kirstie Coventry called the called to keep
1:11:09
politics out of sport and guarantee access for
1:11:13
all She has previously opposed banning athletes due
1:11:17
to their country's involvement in armed conflicts and
1:11:20
announced plans to initiate discussion on Russia's return
1:11:24
to the Olympics if I was a competitor
1:11:28
I would want as many competitors from as
1:11:32
many Countries as possible if I'm going for
1:11:35
gold.
1:11:36
I don't want to think that later.
1:11:38
I didn't win Or I didn't defeat Everybody
1:11:42
that Should have been defeated in order for
1:11:48
me to get the gold especially if you're
1:11:50
just not allowing people in on the flags
1:11:54
You know that this this is You know
1:11:58
I'm I'm pretty solid in my my belief
1:12:01
on that the Ability to Fight on your
1:12:08
own under your own flag is is important
1:12:10
Why should you have to as a person
1:12:12
who's worked his whole life and is proud
1:12:14
of his country not be able to fight
1:12:17
You know that is just bull crappy and
1:12:22
You know I disagree with this too.
1:12:25
Here's another another For EU states are boycotting
1:12:35
Eurovision you guys know what Eurovision is right
1:12:38
and Spain Ireland Slovenia And the Netherlands have
1:12:44
announced that they're withdrawing from the song Contest
1:12:48
so Eurovision is where they they all get
1:12:51
together and everybody has This past year it
1:12:54
was in Basel Switzerland Spain Ireland Slovenia Netherlands
1:12:59
say they will boycott the next Eurovision song
1:13:03
contest After Israel was cleared to participate earlier
1:13:09
this year several broadcasters urge content contest organizers
1:13:15
to bar Israel over vote rigging and Because
1:13:22
the war in Gaza the latest u.s.
1:13:25
Truce U.s. Brokered truce Was intended to
1:13:31
pause hostilities allow humanitarian aid, but continued Israeli
1:13:36
attacks have killed 366 more people since it
1:13:40
was imposed and so They're announcing You know
1:13:48
Dutch Dutch as said infringement of universal values
1:13:52
such as humanity press freedom and Political interference
1:13:58
that has occurred during previous Eurovision song contests
1:14:02
Cross a boundary for us and for us
1:14:05
and Ireland Said the appalling loss of lives
1:14:09
in Gaza the humanitarian crisis and Israel's crackdown
1:14:14
on press freedom That's the reason for their
1:14:18
withdrawal Slovenia said it will not take part
1:14:23
says we cannot stand on the same stage
1:14:25
with representatives of a country That causes genocide
1:14:30
in Gaza Spanish broadcaster says That They
1:14:39
request a secret ballot on Israel's participation and
1:14:46
the European decision-making body rejected that call
1:14:52
but said that the decision deepens distrust in
1:14:56
organization of the contest and confirms political pressure
1:15:01
and That it's no longer an open contest
1:15:05
it's a politically Motivated and you know, that's
1:15:10
the unfortunate part of that that the judges
1:15:13
always have to come up with a political
1:15:18
Decision regarding who gets to win these things.
1:15:23
I think that is That is nonsense I
1:15:29
want to share a story with you of
1:15:34
Guy named Alex Laguna Okay it he's
1:15:43
living proof of the lies of racist propaganda
1:15:49
Allegedly, this is an interesting story that depict
1:15:53
black people as second-class citizens incapable of
1:15:58
fine art or Political organization and the name
1:16:04
of the story is called bandit home welcomed
1:16:08
on the streets of Moscow and It's a
1:16:16
Laguna died in Havana Cuba in 1985 and
1:16:22
He was a writer who was banned in
1:16:25
his own homeland of South Africa but in
1:16:28
the Soviet Union he Was honored and He
1:16:35
was against apartheid and loyalty and ideals of
1:16:38
freedom his life is a Chronicle of struggle
1:16:42
in which literary creativity served as a direct
1:16:46
extension of political activism and To grasp the
1:16:52
significance of this guy.
1:16:54
He's an an activist and a writer Excuse
1:16:58
me You have to consider the time period
1:17:01
during when he wrote it was during apartheid
1:17:03
and Afrikaans word that meant Separateness it was
1:17:07
not just a system of segregation.
1:17:09
It was a totalian totalitarian ideology enshrining the
1:17:13
supremacy of The white minority over the black
1:17:17
majority now a lot of people Trump included
1:17:21
are Arguing that the opposite is going on
1:17:23
now in South Africa And that was allegedly
1:17:26
the reason he didn't show up at the
1:17:28
g20 which was held in South Africa this
1:17:31
year Officially instituted by the National Party in
1:17:36
South Africa in 1948 apartheid lasted until 94
1:17:42
And the oppressive regime was underpinned by laws
1:17:46
such as the Population Registration Act Which categorized
1:17:50
citizens by race the group areas act which
1:17:53
designated Residential areas for different races the immorality
1:17:58
act which prohibited sexual relationships between the races
1:18:03
under apartheid black South Africans were stripped of
1:18:07
civil rights freedom of movement any control at
1:18:12
all over their own lives dissent and the
1:18:14
fight for equality were Ruthlessly crushed by state
1:18:18
security forces the apartheid government viewed the USSR
1:18:22
as a nemesis and accused it of stoking
1:18:27
racial division and supporting terrorists from the African
1:18:32
National Congress And according to Laguma he kept
1:18:40
an issue of his vestia And that's a
1:18:43
newspaper in Russia that his father brought back
1:18:46
from Moscow as a relic in this atmosphere
1:18:48
of inequality Laguna's talent was forged.
1:18:52
He was born in 1925 in the slums
1:18:55
of Cape Town and he grew up immersed
1:18:58
in a culture of resistance His father was
1:19:00
Jimmy Laguna, and he joined the Communist Party
1:19:04
of South Africa Which sought social justice through
1:19:08
the lens of the Soviet experience?
1:19:10
Alex Laguna recalled that father's father and others
1:19:14
like him used the teachings of Lenin To
1:19:19
show workers in the country that they could
1:19:21
achieve happiness for themselves and their children in
1:19:24
27 Jimmy Laguna even attended a Congress in
1:19:28
Moscow a trip talked about by their family
1:19:31
and a Laguna said I kept the issue
1:19:37
of his vestia that my father brought back
1:19:39
from Moscow and that featured a report about
1:19:42
the con Congress like a and I kept
1:19:45
it like a precious relic unfortunately, it disappeared
1:19:49
during a police raid on my apartment in
1:19:52
Cape Town and You know this episode illustrated
1:19:57
the persecution that he faced the Apartheid government
1:20:01
saw him as a charismatic political leader Capable
1:20:05
of mobilizing the masses plus he was a
1:20:08
gifted writer whose work shaped international opinion against
1:20:14
Apartheid his early novels such as a walk
1:20:17
in the night from 1962 served as a
1:20:20
shocking and honest window into the reality of
1:20:23
apartheid for the world Laguna didn't just depict
1:20:27
the poverty and humiliation experienced by South African
1:20:31
black population he captured the psychological toll that
1:20:35
the system exacted upon individuals how it shattered
1:20:39
their lives severed their connections and drove an
1:20:43
entire race into despair and You know, he
1:20:47
was an important an important body and so
1:20:51
now with Trump saying that the opposite is
1:20:54
occurring that now The pendulum has gone back
1:20:58
to the other way and I don't know
1:20:59
the truth of this or not I had
1:21:00
a friend a white friend from South Africa
1:21:04
that I lived with for Nearly a year
1:21:06
in Qatar named Warren.
1:21:08
I've told stories about him before he's freaking
1:21:09
hilarious guy a lot of fun But he
1:21:13
wasn't racist I wasn't a racist and and
1:21:16
I and I kind of and I quizzed
1:21:18
him a little bit about it about Some
1:21:21
of those things just in general talks, you
1:21:23
know, we were interested in what each other's
1:21:26
countries You know how it was like living
1:21:28
in another country He'd been to the u
1:21:30
.s. A couple of times.
1:21:31
I've never been to South Africa would like
1:21:33
to but But he was imprisoned this Laguna
1:21:40
not Warren the South African government placed him
1:21:45
on a blacklist in One tactic of this
1:21:49
was to use him was the 90-day
1:21:52
solitary confinement clause of The General Law Amendment
1:21:57
Act which allowed for individuals to be held
1:22:01
for 90 days up to 90 days in
1:22:05
solitary confinement without trial Simply for criticizing the
1:22:09
government and his wife Blanche Herman was also
1:22:13
imprisoned He later recalled, you know by chance
1:22:17
ourselves were located close to each other on
1:22:20
November 7 leaning against the bars.
1:22:22
We started singing the International together and he
1:22:26
was arrested again under the 180 day solitary
1:22:31
confinement clause of the Criminal Procedure Act in
1:22:36
total He spent nearly 11 years in prison
1:22:40
and under house arrest So these are interesting
1:22:47
stories that you hear from around the world
1:22:49
of of race and important people that have
1:22:53
Fought against those things and I don't know
1:22:56
what's right and what's wrong.
1:22:58
I don't know Today his legacy is perhaps
1:23:02
more relevant than ever ever his battle against
1:23:05
intolerance and social oppression along with his belief
1:23:08
in the power of words and Injustice continues
1:23:11
to resonate across time as he Stated in
1:23:16
one of his writings.
1:23:17
I admit our hair may have turned white,
1:23:20
but is not us who is aged our
1:23:23
enemy Imperialism is what has grown old While
1:23:29
we are sustained by the vital force of
1:23:31
our just cause which keeps us young the
1:23:35
struggle for humanity's liberation is the source of
1:23:39
Eternal youth I found that to be quite
1:23:43
an interesting article and you find out, you
1:23:46
know historic figures come from all over the
1:23:50
planet and you know the Martin Luther Kings
1:23:55
of the United States were equally as important
1:23:59
in bringing well bringing I Don't know the
1:24:05
light to such issues, you know But there's
1:24:08
still plenty of that that goes on and
1:24:10
there's still plenty of racism around the world
1:24:15
Let's see, what are we gonna finish up
1:24:17
with today?
1:24:19
I like the The Discussion of Excuse me
1:24:28
Putin going to India and the Discussion the
1:24:32
analysis after the visit perhaps I shall Finish
1:24:37
with that.
1:24:38
I I told you a little bit about
1:24:39
what was on the agenda for them and
1:24:44
Those agendas were defense cooperation It's this was
1:24:52
his 10th visit to Putin's 10th visit to
1:24:56
New Delhi and You know these They're discussing
1:25:05
Trade ties in the 50% tariff imposed
1:25:09
on India by Donald Trump half of which
1:25:13
is said to be a punitive measure for
1:25:17
purchasing Russian oil and So there's a 50
1:25:22
% tariff on India 25% of levy
1:25:26
of that is for Russian oil import and
1:25:28
Trump calls Claims it helps fund the Ukraine
1:25:32
conflict for Russia in India maintains that its
1:25:36
oil purchases are based solely on its own
1:25:40
national interests and So Putin's visit To India
1:25:48
is one of the most important in a
1:25:52
long time and they were talking about defense
1:25:55
cooperation the Production of the Sukhoi su-57
1:26:00
is top on the agenda deeper military cooperation
1:26:04
and technology transfers for air Navy missile platforms
1:26:08
I read an article Earlier that said that
1:26:12
there are no limits in what they are
1:26:15
exchanging especially on topic number two space collaboration
1:26:23
Russia's Collaboration with India who includes engine building
1:26:28
rocket fuel piloted spaceflight and the development of
1:26:32
national orbit stations and so the night in
1:26:36
1984 Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to
1:26:39
travel to space aboard a Soviet say use
1:26:42
spacecraft and Russia's been working with India and
1:26:45
its upcoming human fleet spike Gaganyaan is what
1:26:49
it's called.
1:26:50
And so they're talking about that.
1:26:52
They're working together on economic ties and De
1:26:57
-dollarization and I think two days before his
1:27:03
visit Putin announced that Russia is Expanding its
1:27:07
economic ties with India both countries are keen
1:27:11
to link their national payment systems, okay Moscow
1:27:16
is hopeful that they can agree on the
1:27:19
recognition of Mir and Rupay and Mir is
1:27:24
already recognized limited, but they're talking about everywhere
1:27:27
and the next step is to pair SBP
1:27:31
Russia's fast payment system and UPI India's United
1:27:35
payment interface both countries have stepped up the
1:27:39
use of the rupee and the ruble for
1:27:41
trade settlement 90% of their trade now
1:27:46
remember 94% of China Russia trade is
1:27:49
done in the yuan and the ruble and
1:27:52
now India and Russia have more than 90
1:27:56
% of their trade being done in their
1:27:59
national currencies So and Dmitry Peskov said whatever
1:28:03
can be shared with India will be shared
1:28:06
They're facilitating trade and creating a new group.
1:28:10
They're having domestic issues.
1:28:12
This is This Trip comes against the u
1:28:17
.s. Sanctions and oil companies and punitive tariffs
1:28:20
India's exports to the u.s. Have fallen
1:28:23
though.
1:28:24
It is still the country's largest export market
1:28:26
India is Negotiating with a trade treaty with
1:28:30
the u.s. To lower those tariffs and
1:28:32
Moscow is pledging to correct their own trade
1:28:35
imbalances India and Russia And we'll have a
1:28:38
fine diplomatic line to tread while negotiating To
1:28:42
boost this trade military and economic ties and
1:28:46
such-and-such between the countries so I
1:28:50
think it's important to keep an eye on
1:28:52
these sorts of Development and I intend to
1:28:57
do so for you there are Massive Events
1:29:04
going on which we will get to come
1:29:06
Monday This is my first week of being
1:29:08
on the 730 to 9 slot and I
1:29:15
Will Return Monday 730 a.m. To 9
1:29:20
a.m. Listen to us at damn radio
1:29:23
calm forward slash live or forward slash podcast
1:29:26
for all of the prior shows Enjoy your
1:29:30
weekend listen to any of my back shows
1:29:34
with various topics at international flavor.com and
1:29:40
I will be happy to Continue this discussion
1:29:46
next week and that is the plan I
1:29:49
appreciate y'all for being here and you
1:29:51
have a very good weekend