NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN - English News at 18:00 (JST), December 30

Over the past few weeks, the situation in Haiti has gone from bad to worse. On November 10, the interim prime minister of Haiti, Gary Conille, was dismissed by the council that had appointed him in May. Since then, violence has surged throughout Port au Prince and in surrounding locals. A Kenyan-lead police mission has been powerless to stop this escalating security and humanitarian crisis. In our conversation, Renata Segura of the International Crisis Group explains the shifting contours of this violence and what steps can be taken to enhance security in Haiti. She also delves into the ongoing debates about transforming the Kenyan-lead mission into a formal UN peacekeeping mission, discussing the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a move.

Alsu Kurmasheva was visiting her ailing mother in Russia when she was detained by the authorities and had her passports confiscated. She is a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and her arrest immediately raised alarms that, like the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, yet another American journalist has been targeted and wrongfully detained in Russia. However, unlike the wrongful detention of Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva's case is far less known. My guest today is Pavel Butorin, Alsu's husband and also a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He explains what happened to Alsu and his ongoing efforts to secure her release from a Russian jail.

Welcome to Episode 58 of Off Street: The official podcast of the Marshall Financial Investment Team. In today’s episode, Adam and Sean discuss:·         Hims plan to offer GLP-1 drug at 85% discount to Wegovy·         Mexican Taco Stand becoming first of its kind to earn Michelin Star·         Chipotle fans boycotting over shrinking portions and rising prices·         Is the new Meme Stock craze already dead?·         The $850 streaming bill to watch every NFL game in 2024-25·         Cheaper to rent than to buy in all top 50 metros in the US·         How a Peter Lynch prediction from 30 years ago holds up today·         Noted bear Mike Wilson turning bullish as stocks hit all-time highs·         Chubb stock feeling a “Buffett Bump” after Berkshire Hathaway investmentThey finish up with "Uncorrelated" stories about an MLB player who claims to have never bought anything online, and the $190 nachos and $280 lobster rolls that were served at the F1 Miami Grand Prix.Please see the links below for our disclosure.Podcast Disclosure: https://www.marshallfinancial.com/off-street-podcast-disclaimer/

Bonus Pod alert! Last week, moderator Margaret Brennan went to Williamsburg, VA to interview former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about America's role in the current state of international affairs amid domestic in-fighting and division. Listen to the full-length interview here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Russians say relations between the U.S. are at a low point while officials warn all of this could increase the risk of miscalculation. In the race to reach the debris of the down drone, U.S. Officials say the Russians arrived at the scene first, about 60 miles southwest of the crimean peninsula.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rare protests broke out across several cities in China in recent weeks. Demonstrators took to the streets to protest the government's extreme Zero Covid policy, which imposes harsh lockdowns in an effort to stamp out the virus. In some cases, the protests took aim at the government itself, calling for Xi Jinping to step down.  Protests of this kind are extremely rare, so this movement understandable caught the attention of the world. It also apparently caught the attention of the government which has since signaled an easing of its quarantine policies.  In this episode, we speak with Kaiser Kuo, host of The Sinica Podcast, from The China Project. We spoke just hours after it was announced that former president Jiang Zemin had passed away at the age of 96. We discuss Jiang Zemin's legacy on china today and how his death may serve as a catalyst for further protest in China. We then have an extended conversation about the rationale of Xi Jinpin's Zero Covid policy, and what may come next for this policy and the protest movement.

Today’s episode of Global Dispatches is a promotion for a podcast that I think many of my listeners will find valuable. The podcast is called “Inside Geneva,” in which host Imogen Foulkes puts big questions facing the world to the experts working to tackle them in Switzerland’s international city. Inside Geneva is is produced by Swissinfo, a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. In this episode, Imogen Foulkes talks to human rights defenders and investigators bringing their cases to the UN Human Rights Council. You will hear from a diverse array of human rights defenders, investigators and victims of human rights abuses as they pursue justice at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.  

Sri Lanka is in the midst of an economic catastrophe. The government is low on foreign exchange reserves and struggling to pay off its debts. The Sri Lankan rupee has plunged in value over the last several weeks. Inflation is soaring. Fuel is scarce, and there have been widespread blackouts in major parts of the country.  This sharp economic downturn is sparking a major political crisis for the government, long controlled by a single family. But now widespread protests are posing the most significant challenge to the Rajapaksa family's grip on power in decades.  My guest today, JS Tissanayagram, is a Sri Lankan journalist and human rights activist living in the US. He kicks off describing how this crisis is impacting the daily lives of people in Sri Lanka before we have a longer conversation about the roots of this economic crisis and is political implications.   

In March 2020, when countries around the world started imposing COVID-19 lockdowns Kashmir was just emerging from a lockdown of its own. Several months prior, in August 2019 the government of India revoked the special status that Kashmir had enjoyed since the partition of India in 1947. This sparked mass protests, violence and a heavy handed government response -- including curfews and an internet shutdown.  But just as restrictions were slowly being lifted in the early part of 2020, COVID emerged and the Indian government opted to invoke COVID to impose new restrictions on the people of Kashmir. This includes new citizenship laws and restrictions on press freedom.  My guest today, Adnan Bhat is a journalist in Kashmir who has documented how COVID-19 has served as a pretext to advance policies that abrogate the rights of people in Kashmir.  His article on this was published as part of the Stanley Center's "Red Flags or Resilience Series?" that uses journalism to explore the connections between the coronavirus pandemic and the factors for risk and resilience to mass violence and atrocities around the world. This episode is produced in partnership with the Stanley Center. To view Adnan Bhat's article and other stories in this series please visit https://resilience.stanleycenter.org/