September 1, 2025 • 57 mins
This week, we analyze the breakdown of diplomacy in Ukraine following the Trump-Putin summit and explore the widening conflict in the Middle East, as Israel launches a new offensive in Gaza and targets Houthi leadership in Yemen. Is military force becoming the only language of negotiation on the world stage?
Episode Highlights
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Episode Highlights
- Ukraine's Diplomatic Deadlock: An inside look at why peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have stalled, with the U.S. stepping back from its role as chief negotiator. We also discuss the chilling assassination of a high-profile Ukrainian political figure in Lviv and its use as a psychological warfare tactic.
- Gaza's Deepening Crisis: As the IDF declares Gaza City a combat zone and resumes its offensive , we examine the devastating humanitarian impact, including a declared famine , and the internal Israeli political push for the annexation of the Gaza Strip.
- Israel's Decapitation Strategy: An analysis of Israel's targeted strike against the Houthi leadership in Yemen. We explore why this tactic is successful at disrupting groups like the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah but ultimately fails to defeat their underlying ideology.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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part of the awesome Leon Media Network. This week, we're
diving into the latest from Ukraine in Gaza and an
Israeli strike and Yemen targeting Huthi leadership. We're going to start,
(03:21):
as always with the latest developments from the war in Ukraine.
So Kurvin, the situation has not calmed down since we
last spoke, and the diplomatic efforts that follow the summit
between the US and Russia seem to be at a standstill,
which is shocking to nobody. The lack of a face
to face meeting between the two warring leaders is now
the main topic of conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it looks really looks like the conversation has shifted
to what can be done now to help Ukraine after
that huge nothing burger of a Trump Putin summit that
happened a few weeks back. So this past week, President
Zelenski's top aid, Andre Hyermak met with US Special ENVOYE.
Steve Whitkoff. That happened in New York this week. While
(04:08):
Yrmac expressed Ukraine's support for the US push for peace,
he also accused Russia of doing everything that it can
to prevent a meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
And what is Russia's stance in all of this?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I mean, their position has been consistent Kremlin spokesperson to
meet your peskoff to say that while President Putin is
open to a meeting, he's open to it, it must
be and I'll quote him here quote well prepared in
quote with a set agenda. Now he said the expert
level work needed for this meeting is not currently in
(04:46):
full swing, which appears to be Russia's way of stalling
these negotiations. It is an interesting contrast. President Trump says
he is ready to get them to the table, but
it is now Russia saying that the homework has not
been done yet.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
What does not in full swing even mean in this context,
I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So from a Russian perspective, it would mean that there's
been no discussion with them on how to go about
these meetings. And when they say well prepared, what they
set agenda, they really mean with an agenda of you
know what a complete capitulation for Ukraine is going to
(05:32):
look like. And this is why it's like this is
a stalling tactic because they're never going to agree to
the sit down meeting. But if they keep saying they
will agree according to these conditions that will never be met,
they can at least save face publicly to their own
people that we are the ones they're trying to find peace.
(05:53):
It's everyone else that has not come up with a
true plan, Russia's true plan being give Ukraine to Russia.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
But how have they not looked at like I'm saying,
the civilians, you know, Russia's people, like, how have they
not looked at it and seen that other people are
making suggestions and that it's Russia drawing these hard lines
and saying we are not going to come to the
table with Ukraine specifically until they capitulate to all of
(06:24):
our demands. Wouldn't they see that that's them being stubborn
and prideful and greedy and you know, prolonging this protractive war,
this conflict.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And I think some within Russia do see that, But
you've got to understand, it's a semi closed society. They
are getting a lot of their information from Russian state media,
and Russian state media is twisting this and swinging it
into their favors, So the majority of the population does
(06:58):
not see that it is the US and Ukraine and
Europe who are actually putting these things into motion. They
still think that, you know, it's Russia that's sitting there.
The big bad bullies of NATO and Ukraine are pushing
against you know.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
This.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Country of Russia, and they're they're trying to keep them
off of the world stage.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I feel like that's insulting to the intelligence of the
Russian people though, because I mean, obviously, I mean do
they they when you say it's like a close society
and everything they don't have access.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
To, Yes, that's media is That's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I still understand how saying you know that Putin is,
you know, open to the meeting, but it has to
be well prepared and that the expert level work needed
is quote not in full swing in quote. I don't
see how that is an acceptable excuse.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It really is. Even the people within the country, I
just don't see how to them it would they be like, oh, yes,
that that makes sense. That's everyone else is wrong and
we are fully right. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I mean, if you even look at the US society, right,
when we have two political factions and you've got two
groups of people who are so entrenched in their position,
they only watch the news that speaks to their point
of view. They only read social media posts or see
social media posts that agree with their worldview, and so
(08:36):
they're in this bubble, and so they do sometimes even
with everything that's in front of them that's saying the
exact opposite, they'll stay entrenched in their own belief system.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, you're you're right, You're right. I wasn't thinking about
it from that angle. I was thinking about it from
my perspective. I'm like, how can you not see it? Well, Also,
I'm not a civilian living in Russia right now, So
there's that right there.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, and you do this podcast with an open mind,
th uless and every GINGI it that's going on, and
you don't make your opinions based off of one side
or another. So I think that's part of it.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, that is a huge part of it. So all right, well,
I guess we need to bring it back to the
topic at hand, which you mentioned how the US seems
to be responding, but it feels more like a rhetorical recalibration.
Like a few weeks ago, there was so much optimism,
at least from the White House, but now it feels
(09:40):
like that momentum has stalled and President Trump has gone
from being the chief negotiator to openly expressing skepticism about
a meeting happening at all, and it's a significant pivot.
It makes you wonder if the US is stepping back,
who is going to step in to fill that void.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's a great question. You have Europe, which some in Washington,
d C. Now see as a hindrance to peace. Then
you have other actors like China and Turkey. They have
their own interests and their own relationships with Russia and Ukraine.
So if the US steps back, this creates a vacuum
between all of those nations. And look at after the summit.
(10:25):
There's a lot of talk about a two week time
frame for a meeting to be arranged. That deadline has
coming gone the president. President Trump has now said he's
not sure if the meeting is going to happen at all,
even raise the possibility of quote very big consequences end
quote if the war does not end. They also talked
(10:46):
about a potential economic war on Russia. This is the
significant shift in his rhetoric. Remember, the rhetoric was antagonistic
against Ukraine for the most part. Now it's against Russia.
So this entire situation is surely shifted in just a
couple of weeks now.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And it's also drawn reactions from other world leaders like
French President Emmanuel Macrone warned that President Trump risked being
played by Putin if the meeting does not go ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, it's coming from a man who got played by
Putin in twenty twenty two. So I guess it takes
one to no one. But this is something that we
mentioned on this podcast as well. Don't get sucked into
those horrible optics that we saw Macron get sucked into
that abnormally long table to world leaders on opposite sides
(11:39):
of said table. This is a classic Russian power dynamic.
To me, it raises a valid question when does a
photo op then become a strategic disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Well, amidst all of this, the violence on the ground
is continuing, like Russia has stepped up its attacks with
a large scale missile and drone strike on Kiev killed
at least twenty one people.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, the current reality on the ground, it's obviously starkly
at odds with the public lead desired diplomatic outcome on
either side appears to be genuinely ready for a negotiated peace. Instead,
they're engaged in a brutal effort to improve the leverage
of either side. Now, this recent surge in Russian attacks
that coupled with Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, so
(12:25):
aren't just military actions. They are tactical moves designed to
weaken the enemies, resolve, and then force that enemy to
the negotiating table from a position of disadvantage. So the
battlefield for now remains the primary theater of negotiation.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
And then there is the unfortunate assassination of former parliament
speaker Andre Pirubi, which adds yet another layer to this.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, it does. The killing of such a high profile figure,
a man so central to Ukraine's pro Western movement, sends
this chilling message to Ukrainians across the country. This happened
in the Ukrainian city of Leviv, which for the most
part has been shielded from this conflict in eastern Ukraine,
and it certainly speaks to the ongoing internal threats by
(13:12):
Russian sabateurs and the deep seated divisions that persist within
the country of Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So what does a targeted killing like this mean for
the morale of the country and the stability of the government.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You know, like this is most certainly a psychological warfare tactic,
something that Russia has been doing since this war began. Now,
he is the former speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, but
he's still a very or was a very striking figure
who was very prominent in Ukrainian politics. Now, like I said,
(13:52):
it is very prominent in this city of Leviv and
western Ukraine, in this part that was largely spared from
the front lines. So the message to the Ukrainian population
from Russia is clear that no one is truly safe.
So this can kind of so panic. It'll definitely erode
the public's sense of security, and I will say that
(14:14):
is a major pillar of their national resilience at this moment.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Well, after three and a half years of discussing this conflict,
it is clear that this war has many more dimensions
than the daily headlines tend to suggest. The assassination of
a political figure in a relatively safe city. It speaks
to a level of psychological warfare that is frankly quite unsettling,
and it makes me think about other conflicts that we
(14:40):
are keeping an eye on, where the human cost is
immense and the lines between military, political and social fronts
are completely blurred. And of course I am alluding to
the situation in the Middle East, specifically in and around Gaza,
which has seen a number of major developments over the
past few days, from a renewed Israeli offensive to talk
of annexation and an escalating humanitarian crisis. The landscape continues
(15:05):
to shift daily, So let us start with the military
developments here. It has been reported that Israel has declared
Gazza City a combat zone, which is what they wanted
to do anyways, and has resumed it's plain defensive. So
this is a significant move and what is your analysis
behind this action at this moment.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, we know that Israel had previously been conducting what
it called tactical pauses for that aid delivery. Now that
is over, that has ended. A stated goal from the
Israeli military is to quote bring back all the kidnapped
hostages and dismantle Hummas in quote. That's what they've said
(15:47):
from the very beginning. So the declaration of Gaza City
as a combat zone indicates a major shift from those
targeted strikes to a broader, more intense ground operation, likely
a decision to lean into Israel's military advantage and attempt
to achieve those stated goals without negotiating with Hamas, and.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
That leads us directly into the humanitarian situation, which has
reached a critical point. The death toll from the war
is immense, and according to the Maas run Gaza Health Ministry,
it is now over sixty three thousand people and more
than three hundred people have died from malnutrition. Outside of
(16:30):
the UN and Gaza Health Ministry, the crisis has been
validated by multiple independent sources. So sorry, Israeli, you're not
going to be able to come in here and swing
this back in your favor, including the IPC, which is
a group of international food security experts, which has officially
declared a famine in Gaza City, which we talked about
that last week. I believe yes, with a new offensive underway,
(16:54):
I mean, this almost seems like a silly question ask,
but how will this inevitably compound the crisis and impact
the ability to get aid to those who need it most.
I guess now, since you know, Israel doesn't have to
hold those pauses for aid to get through because it's
a combat zone and they're just trying to protect their people,
(17:17):
So forget everybody else who's in the crosshairs.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I guess yeah, and I will say the IPC is
as you said, it's a group of international food security experts,
but they work with many different faith based groups, both Christian, Jewish, Islamic,
many different non government organizations and governments. So it's not
(17:41):
something like we talk about with the UN where we go. Yeah, well,
Hamas has kind of infiltrated that part of the UN.
The IPC seems to be multifaceted. And so now they're
saying that this is a famine in Gaza City, while
is is stopping that aid to declare Gaza City a
(18:03):
war zone. And this renewed offensive is going to certainly
exacerbate what's already a desperate humanitarian situation, but there is
certainly a risk reward calculation from the idea. Israeli forces
are operating on the premise that a new offensive is
necessary to neutralize these remaining threats. They have stated their
(18:23):
intent to move civilians out of harm's way, but the
options for save havens are few and far between at
this point. On the ground, aid deliveries are already facing
immense challenges. Reports from non government organizations or NGOs indicate
that blockade damaged infrastructure and active combat zones are severely
(18:45):
restricting much needed access to that AID. The decision to
halt air drops, which yes, that was condemned by the UN.
Having the air drops was condemned by the UN, but
at least they were one source of last resort for
AID that moves into Gaza City. This removes just another
(19:06):
lifeline for the people of Palestine.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Ultimately, both sides are making decisions with grave consequences for
the civilian population. I'm talking about the IDF and HAMAS
trust is at an all time low, and that is
saying something. With the historical trust being already non existent
between the two, this makes the coordination of AID and
the protection of civilians a near impossible task. What we're
(19:32):
witnessing is a complete breakdown of the conditions needed for
basic human survival for a significant portion of the population
of Palestine.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So basically, what you're saying is that there is no
end in sight for the civilians suffering in Palestine. Let's
transition to the issue of the hostages. The Israeli military
has recovered the remains of two more hostages and it
is believed that nearly fifty remaining, with only about twenty
thought to be alive at this point. The Hostages in
(20:05):
Missing Families Forum is now putting pressure more pressure on
the Israeli government to prioritize it deal because the deal
has been on the back burner for a while. Yeah,
so I long. Yeah, how does this renewed military action
in kaus Of City affect the possibility of a deal
for the remaining hostages?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, the military and political objectives are in conflict here.
On one hand, you've got the intensified offensive that is
seen by some as a way to pressure Hamas into
a deal. Now, the idea is that increased military force
is going to weaken Hamas to the point where they're
going to be forced to negotiate on Israel's terms. On
the other hand, the Hostages in Missing Families Forum is
(20:48):
right to be concerned. A large scale urban offensive inherently
puts the remaining living hostages at extreme risk. It's a
very difficult, very delicate, and weighing the potential of a
military victory against the immediate risk to those still in
captivity is a difficult decision, apparently for the Israeli government.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, from what you are saying, this just doesn't make
logical sense saying you want the hostages released, but then
pushing a violent offensive into the very places those hostages
are being held. It. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. At
this point. I can only foresee a tragic end to
this conflict where everybody loses. It feels that way already. Honestly,
(21:36):
with that said, we have to talk about the political developments,
which feel equally significant. The far right Israeli Finance minister
has called for the annexation of the Gaza Strip if
Hamas refuses to disarm. He is outlined a four week
faced planned to do this, and while Prime Minister Netanya,
who was not publicly commented on this specific proposal, he
(21:58):
has hinted at a plan for Real to take control
of all Gaza, which I had a feeling that was
the end game. Anyways, they weren't too happy to give
up the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians back when they
had to do it. So anyways, what does this kind
of talk from a government minister tell us about the
(22:19):
long term political direction?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, uh, I think I just read a couple of
hours ago that President Trump has put in a ten
year phased plan to move all the Palestinians out and
take ownership of the Gaza Strip. So there's also that
one that is oh America.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
He wants America a ten year plan from had to
take over the Gaza Strip. He really pushing that Trump
Trump Gaza or what they call it? What did they
call it? Whenever those AI images.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Came out of Well, wasn't it Trump Trump Gaza?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Was it Trumpkaza? I don't remember, or what it was
called something with Trump in it.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah, Like the least subtle way, the way that I
read it is that defense contractors would come in to
provide security, remove all of the remaining civilians from the area,
and do a phased.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Return of the area to Israel, who you know, believes
just like you said, they weren't too happy when it
was given back to the Palestinians back in two thousand
and five. So they still believe that this is Israeli land.
And once, as we always say, how far back in
history do we need to go to give someone back
(23:40):
their land? I think we play a very dangerous game
if we just keep playing tit for tat for giving
people their land back that they had when they controlled it.
The I guess the this land is your land? No,
this land is no one's land. Maybe we're just all
(24:00):
here to uh maybe live together in peace and harmony.
And it sounded like a hippie right now. But yeah,
I'm just getting a little sick and tired.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
But you wouldn't have this podcast without humans being humans.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I'd much rather do a different podcasts.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, it would be we'd go back to whenever we'd
go to the beach and drink and just ramble.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, that's the podcast.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I want the earlier episodes where we made no sense
at all.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
When we were while trying to make sense of the world.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Well, trying to make sense of the world made no sense.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But yeah, but you asked from the Israeli perspective, what
is what does this tell us about the long term
political direction? And I think it tells us that they
are very serious and powerful voices within the Israeli government
who are not only thinking about the the future of
the conflict, but are also actively pushing for a fundamentally
(25:05):
different post war reality than many people, whether I would
say many people who are pro Palestine or neutral in
this in this conflict were not wanting of the proposal,
which AMASA has called an official call to exterminate our people,
(25:29):
the people of Palestine, is on the extreme end of
the political spectrum. Like I said, it was far right
Israel's far right government. Now even Prime Minister in net
Yahu's statements about taking military control of all of Gaza
suggest there is zero desire at this point to hand
the territory back to a Palestinian civilian administration.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
The idea of taking complete military control and fundamentally altering
the status of Gaza that is going to have massive
geopolitical consequences. I still believe this proves that while Hamas
started this conflict on October seventh, twenty twenty three, the
war represents an opportunity for Israel to permanently change the
(26:16):
landscape back in their favor. Obviously, we have to take
a quick break, and when we come back, we are
going to pivot to another major flashpoint in the region.
There have been reports of an Israeli airstrike on Houthy
targets in human and we are going to talk about
what that means for the two nations and for the
(26:36):
region as a whole. So stay with us, we'll be
right back. Welcome back, listeners, Thank you for sticking with us.
Before the break, we were talking about the war on
the ground in Gaza and how the IDF is looking
to pressure Hamas. So now let's talk about another Iranian
proxy that Israel's actively targeting. Of course, I am talking
(26:57):
about the Huthis of Yemen this week, the idea of
targeted a government facility in Sana, the capital city of Yemen,
a place that you once called home, dear, I say,
am I even allowed to say that?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I don't even know sure.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I mean it's yeah, I guess you'll you can get
into that and you can explain what that means, at
least according to the mini government, you could it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
It was my home, it was your home.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So can you walk us through what happened in Sana?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah? Like, I'm sure most of our listeners are people
who know us. Know I spent some time in Yemen
years ago, put on a watch list because of it.
But that's just a fun story from all.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh, I's still mad about lesbian on that watch list.
I'm still I'm still mad about them making me throw
away all my baby's formula and throw away her bottles.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And the searches and it laying.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Oh my gosh, all my stuff was always searched and
they one time they opened I think I've complained about
this on the podcast probably two or three times, but
the freaking opened the baby's shampoo, it was Natalie's, Natalie's
special baby shampoo, and didn't close it opened the cans
(28:22):
of formula, didn't close it, and it got all over everything.
And back then it got in my chee hair straightener,
which cheese. When they first came out, they were really
expensive and we were on you were an E four
at that point, and so you know, money was tight.
I could not afford another darn cheese straightener and that
(28:46):
point that I was livid, and it was all in
the name of national security. I got that little fun
little piece of paper where they were like, we checked
all your stuff. Say something about it. Yeah, you're gonna
do about it.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Don't say it to us.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, don't say it to us. We don't care. Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Now, I will say that I was in Yemen before
the Huthis took over, and if you can believe it,
the situation has only gotten worse since that time. I
was there when it was Al Qaeda of the Arabian
Peninsula or AQAP. But as for the most recent IDF strike,
(29:28):
they targeted a compound in the u Mini capital. The
Huthi rebels who control Sannah announced that their de facto
prime minister, along with several other ministers, was killed in
that strike, and Israel later confirmed that they had targeted
a meeting of senior hoof the officials, but they were
still verifying the results of those strikes.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
That sounds like a textbook decapitation strike. This is something
Israel has been known to do, like trying to cut
off cut the head off of these proxies. So is
that what we saw here?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, it is. It's not some random attack. This was
a targeted operation aimed at the very top of the
Hoofy command structure. Now, from an intelligence perspective, what is
striking is the level of precision. The fact that they
knew this was going on, where it was going on,
and exactly where to hit. So to hit a specific
meeting of ministers suggest a high degree of confidence in
(30:25):
their intelligence, and this fits squarely within a broader strategic
pattern we have seen from Israel against all of the
Iranian proxies.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Well, Israel's intelligence is known to be second to none,
so I'm not surprised that they went in there confidently. Yeah, absolutely,
so you are obviously alluding to the previous strikes against
Hamas and Hezbllah leadership.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And just think about the elimination of
Hamasa's political leader Ismael Hania and Tehran. Last year you
had Hesbala's leader Hassan Nostrala and Beirut, and then we
saw Yahya sin War in Gaza. This, this operation in
(31:11):
Sona looks like the next step in that campaign. So
it's continuous trying to get the head of each leadership.
It's an aggressive, proactive approach, but it's trying to neutralize
threats by removing their most important leaders.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
But have they learned nothing from Camp Captain America in
America head of the Hydra and then two more grow
in its place.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
They have not learned that lesson.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
No, I don't think anyone's learned that lessons best I
know you just mentioned. This is an aggressive, proactive approach
to neutralizing threats by removing their most important leaders, and
from an intelligence perspective, it seems to be successful. Well,
at least you know, on the front end. Israel has
(32:04):
consistently been able to find and eliminate these key figures.
Yet these groups themselves are still here. So why is
Israel so successful at the tactical level like taking out
the leaders, but seemingly unable to dismantle the groups entirely.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Oh, I mean, there's a simple answer for this. It's
that we're not talking about traditional militaries. You can defeat
a traditional military by removing its commanding general because the
military's strength lies in a top down, hierarchical structure. So
when the head is cut off, the body often becomes
disoriented and ineffective. But these are ideological groups. Their power
(32:45):
does not come from a single person. It comes from
an idea or multiple ideas.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
What you are saying here is that these proxies are
not fighting for a man or even a country, but
for a core belief.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, precisely, And I bring that with Hamas and Palestine.
I don't think that Hamas is fighting for Palestine. I
don't think has Belast fighting for Lebanon. I don't think
the Huthis are fighting for Yemen. They are fighting for
various various belief systems. The core of their strength is
the belief that Israel and by extension, Western culture, is
(33:24):
an existential enemy. The directive is not a military order
for them. This is a higher calling, So you cannot
assassinate an ideology. You can kill a leader and might
cause temporary disruption, but another leader is going to rise up,
another leader is going to take their place. The next
attack may also be even more severe. This is driven
(33:47):
by a desire for revenge from that group.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
So these operations are more about disrupting the group's operational
rhythm than defeating them.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's right. They wants
to degrade command and control. I want to create a
state of uncertainty. These decapitation strikes make it harder for
the groups to communicate, plan and execute large scale operations.
But like I said, they cannot eliminate the underlying grievance
or the ideology that fuels them. So it's an ongoing,
(34:18):
long term historical challenge, and history tells us there is
no clear endpoint to this.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So this is not just about a strike in Yemen.
It is about an ongoing shadow war playing out across
the entire region. The Hoofees have been firing missiles at
Israel and attacking shipping in the Red Sea.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So is this.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Strike a response to that or is that just what
they're using it as an excuse.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
No, I think it's absolutely a component of that larger conflict.
Who these have been an active front and this strike
is a direct attempt to degrade their command and control
so they can open up the Red Sea, so that
Israel can open up the Red Sea to track. Think again,
now there is some nuance here regarding the casualties. The
(35:04):
Hoothy Prime minister who was killed, he was more seen
of as a figurehead. He's not necessarily a part of
the inner circle. The more critical targets would have been
the military leaders, like the Hoothy Defense minister who's a
known missile expert, and the reporting on his status has
been a little bit confusing, So his fate remains a
key piece of unknown information at the moment.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So while the operation was a success in terms of
hitting the target, the full impact of the strike is
still unknown. So what does that uncertainty mean for the
coming weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I mean it means that the Houthis will likely feel
pressure to retaliate for this strike. Now how they do so,
that's going to be a critical indicator. If we see
a symbolic response, that's going to suggest a leadership that
is more cautious and perhaps more fractured than we previously thought. Now,
if the Hoothie's decide on a significant military response, that
(35:59):
might end Kate that the strike did not truly behead
the organization and they remain a capable and determined threat
now who the leadership has already said they are going
to continue to support Gaza, so we can expect them
to remain engaged in this conflict.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It seems like every time we think we have a
handle on one part of the conflict, a new front
opens up. That is the nature of this current geopolitical environment.
It seems all of this is globally interconnected. Every action
has a reaction, and as you explain each week, intelligence
drives it all. So thank you Curvin as always for
(36:39):
breaking that down for us. Is there anything else you
want to discuss?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Uh? Nothing I could think of now. I'm working on
looking into this relationship between India and China. I just
saw it just before we hit record on here. Modi
from India and g from China had this sort of
photo op and India says that they are kind of
(37:05):
an ally to China, and I talked about how India
was like my one geopolitical country. I was looking at
your wildcard.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I didn't want to say wildcard because you know that's
my North Korea term. But they are a wildcard geopolitically
for sure, because they're playing not just two sides, but
like seven different.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Sides, all the sides.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Hey, you know, you're an emerging economy.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Gotta do what you gotta do, you know, absolutely, I
want to wis show belated Happy birthday to our sweet
little Matdowin.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
She's five years you know, she's five years old.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
No, she turned twenty one yesterday, And what the heck?
What is that about? Like? What on earth?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Wow? So all I got for now? Anything else?
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, I mean that's the all I have for now too.
I just can't believe it. She's twenty one. She is
a fully baked adult in the eyes of the law,
except she can't like some hotels. She can't write hotel
rooms until she's like twenty five or something. Some of
the hotels you have to be maybe it's twenty three.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
It's I think it's twenty one. It's eights, not all
of them.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Not all of them. I can tell you that with abs.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, but that was like thirty years ago years ago.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Even I was trying to get hotel rooms thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
You know what I mean. You're talking about you and
you for warp Tour? Was it warp Tour?
Speaker 1 (38:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Are you in Oklahoma? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
No, no, no, it was Warped Tour. And then there were
the three There was the three dates of Warped Tour
that my sister and her friend and I went to
in Texas who went to go hotel? And then Oklahoma
it was he I picked my sister up from school.
It was for last day of school and we immediately
(39:06):
drove to Oklahoma City because we had an All American
Rejects concert that we wanted to go to. Yeah, and
we couldn't. We had to beg Like. I was so tired,
I couldn't keep my eyes open. And it's really wild
to me thinking about how my parents were just like, yeah, sure,
go to these concerts and go these places, and didn't
follow up and find out where we were going to stay.
(39:29):
They were just like, figure right out on your own,
and we did. Every single time I went in and
begged several hotels. It's like they thought I was gonna
throw a party. But whenever I walked in barely able
to stand because I was exhausted from driving from Homa
all the way to not even into Oklahoma City. It
was like right outside Oklahoma City because I was so tired,
(39:52):
I'm like, you really think I'm gonna go into your
room and throw a party right now? Do I look
like a party animal?
Speaker 2 (40:01):
You're going to a All American Rejects concert? Well, you
know where they hold those now, people's basements and stuff
back yonder.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah. I think they got their start doing something like that.
Didn't they play it with BUCkies or something? I don't know.
I don't know, but either way, I went into a hotel.
It was like the third or fourth one, because the
other three were like no, you're eighteen, you can't or nineteen.
I don't remember if I was eighteen or nineteen, but like, no,
we're not going to give you a room. But luckily
there was this woman who was behind the behind the counter,
(40:33):
and I was like, please, I need a place to sleep,
and she was like, all right, I'm gonna take a
copy of your ID. If there's any damage, you are
going to have to pay for it, and no one
else is allowed in your bedroom. In the room, so
they were like it can only be you and your
sister who we're like. That's all we wanted. And it
(40:56):
was a it was a hole in the wall. We
slept on top of the We slept on top of
the comforter, and we like there was all kinds of
interesting things going outside the door all night. There was
screaming and like banging and all kinds of things, but
we didn't care. We were so exhausted. But I still
(41:19):
am grateful to that lady for letting me get that
hotel room. And she wasn't supposed to, Like, she didn't
have to do that, and all the other motels didn't,
and that was their right they didn't. They can refuse service.
But this lady took a chance, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
She must have been an Abba fan.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Mate, What because I say a chance on any Yeah,
I don't sing it. I'm not gonna Oh, I'm not
gonna sing it. You're the one who brought Abba up.
You didn't even bring that up. That's enough. That's enough
out of.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
You, enough out of me.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yeah, Well that's it.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
What else do we have going? I'm back from the land.
You're back from what the land of land?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Oh? Yeah, he went to England. Got but you had
never been to the Cambridge area before. How was that?
Did you like it?
Speaker 2 (42:18):
I still absolutely hate driving in the UK.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
It had to be worse because the last time we
were you had to drive in England. I was there
and I could look at your phone and tell you
where to go. Yeah, it had to be at hard.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
There are traffic circles are the absolute.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Worst, cause you like going right instead.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Uh oh, I absolutely like going the other way. I
didn't do that, but like sometimes you get into an
intersection and you don't know it's a traffic circle, but
there's like a little little bitty bump right in the middle.
Mm hm, I guess. Yeah, the sign says to make way,
so you should know it's a traffic circle. But if
(43:00):
you were just driving around, you would have no clue
it was a traffic circle. I didn't hit any bikers.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Oh that's that's good. You didn't hit any bikers last time.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
You just almost was very close, very close.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
And thank goodness that biker was paying attention, because you
sure weren't. No, you were trying. You were trying to
pay attention to too many things at once. You were
trying to like keep in mind, stay on the left side,
I cannot go right. That that would have been like
constant in my head. That would have been what I
(43:35):
was thinking about the entire time. Stay left, stay left,
stay left, stay left, And that would definitely override any
other thing that I needed to pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
It was a kind of paid attention to vehicles that
may be merging into So I still think logically the
biker was in the wrong because he was just zooming
through the center of a traffic circle.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, but they're smart to do that though.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
So legally he was right. Logically he was wrong.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Logically, no, logically, with your American mind driving skills, he
was wrong. But he was right in his country. You
were in his country though. You got to keep that
in mind.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
But yeah, that was driving was torturous, and you.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Didn't even eat anything like fun, Like well, I kept
telling you to go have a nice dinner somewhere and
you were just like, no, no, I'm not gonna do that.
And you know, lame bland pizza.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
No, the pizza was good. The what did I did
I get the burger? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:44):
You got you got the burger. It was like three
days ago.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
That is how memorable that burger. Was it was a
frozen patty on two pieces of bread.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Did it taste like a hospital burger? Because I I
love hospital burgers. I don't care. I do not care.
I used to because they are the ones that taste
like school cafeteria burgers. I don't know what it is.
I don't know what it is, but I mean, I
guess it's a comfort thing. It reminds me of childhood,
and that's why I love it so much, because obviously
(45:19):
you don't taste that great, but I love them. I
I ate a burger when my dad was in the hospital.
I ate a burger almost every single day, and I
loved that it just came dry, dry ass bun bland
hockey puck burger. And then you had to go to
the salad bar and get your tongs and take the
(45:41):
toppings separately. And I was like, here for it. I
get so many pickles. Oh, it was awesome. It was awesome. Huh,
No pickles. I don't know if I would trust a
British pickle.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Anyways, I made you know, that's true. I made the
wrong decision, but the decision was made well. I did
have an excellent mill yesterday.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Your dinner kebab.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, oh man, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
I can't wait. I can't wait to try that place.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
It's vegan too, so you'll see.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
I don't want mystery meat. I can get vegan stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
They're actually really famous for their vegan stuff stuff, vegan kebab,
vegan kebab. My favorite thing is the Turkish pizza, which
is a whole pizza rolled up like what, like it's
a kebab.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
What do they put on it?
Speaker 2 (46:48):
They put the donor meat and then all the veggies
and then I make them make I don't make them,
I asked them nicely. Yeah spicy. What did they spice
it up with? Uh? Like chili, the red chili flakes
and they have a spicy sauce. It is so good.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Is it actually spicy? Though? That's the important question.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
It's flavorful. I'll leave it.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
What am I gonna do there?
Speaker 2 (47:17):
You're going to teach people.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
I am going to bring No people are.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Excited because you're gonna they're gonna get Cajun food. What
do you mean?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
People are excited?
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Work? People are excited?
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh okay, okay, well.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Well they they The question was, oh, so your Cajun
I'm like, yep, oh, so you can do gumbo and everything.
No Tian again, though.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I'm Cajun by association. Yes, your dad is the one
who initiated me.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Oh yeah, and you do it perfectly. Mmmmm.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
I was gonna try to make a gluten free gumbo
from Allen's birthday, and she was like, she said, you
are not experimenting with one of my favorite foods on
my birthday.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
What did you guys do sushi? Was it just sushi
or I just I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
I didn't make anything. I got some gluten free pizzas
because she didn't want to do anything because she spent
last week in New York and so she was just like,
I just want to relax. I got her a bottle
of one of those horrible flavored fruit wines, but she
loves she loves those, And like she said, you know,
(48:41):
she's got to pick a struggle. You know she can't well,
she doesn't smoke. I just want to I just want
to say that. But one of these funny things, this
funny thing that she said to me last week was
she if she ever did smoke, it was gonna be
like a man with tobacco wrapped in a paper wrapped
in you know, rolling paper or whatever. She's like, I'm
(49:02):
gonna be like a man if I smoke. She's like,
I can't like fruity drinks and vape.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
I got a picture struggle, for sure, for sure, we
all get one struggle.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, one struggle. And she chose she likes. She chose
the fruity drinks. But she doesn't smoke either, so anyways,
and she doesn't even really like drinking. She just yeah,
she she celebrated her birthday and you know, we did it.
We did keears. Yeah you did. I told you too.
You freaking went home. Yeah, you went home and I
(49:41):
was like, what are you doing? You? You were supposed to,
you know, have a beer dessert or something, and you
got both. What was there dessert?
Speaker 2 (49:49):
It was a brownie with ice cream.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Oh. I bought some gluten free brownies from Wagmans. They
are delicious. They are so budgy and wonderful. I was like, heck, yes,
maybe this isn't so bad after all.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Oh man, it's still a struggle. You'll be happy when
you get out here.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
It is a strungle. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be
like bread, I forgot forgot you forget. You didn't have
to taste like sawdust or like cake or crumble in
my mouth.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
And I'm gonna have to Most people have to pull
their women out of a bar. I'm gonna have to
pull you out of the bakery.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
What do you mean most people have to pull their
women out of a bar? Is a problem? Is not
a problem in Germany?
Speaker 2 (50:39):
No, not in Germany. But I sent you that video
of I'm a I'm a lawyer, Uh a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
She's like I'm an age.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
She wasn't she was one of the assistants.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah. People throwing their weight around like that when they
are clearly in the wrong, it always brings me satisfaction
to see the consequences. It makes me happy, like basically
like pulling rank with a car.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yeah, I guess to tell the story a little bit.
That's the video going around of two women that had
a bit too much at a restaurant and they were
asked to leave, and they didn't want to leave, and
they got into a kerfuffle with the cops that came out,
and one thought that she could throw her rank as
(51:33):
a lawyer at the cops and then found out that, yeah,
she didn't know the law.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah, she tried to tell him how he needed to
conduct himself and what he needed to do. And I
know there are times when that does need to happen.
There are cops that you know, throw their power around,
and I understand that butt in this situation. He was
trying to be patient. He was trying to be he
was trying to listen to her, but also get her
(52:03):
to comply with what the restaurant wanted her to do,
which was leave. She didn't want to comply. She thought
she was above all those things, and the restaurant was like,
trespass her, cuffer do something, and she just kept insisting.
She was trying to like switch the power dynamic and
make it where she had control over situation by saying,
I demand that you turn off your your body cam.
(52:27):
You have to do that. As a civilian, you have
to do that.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
And he's like, you bailed it on that one. Yeah,
she had to switch the power dynamic.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, and the endgame was just freakin walk out, just leave,
That's all you had to do. This didn't have to
turn into like an ego thing, just freaking like you
already messed up. You had a few too many beverages,
which happened sometimes, and you were becoming belligerent and they
(52:57):
asked you to leave, and all you had to do
was comply. And there are literally signs in every business
all over the world that say right to deny service,
and they were denying you service, So get the f
out of there.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
In the speaking of right to deny service, in the
lounge at the airport, there was a sign that said,
after we will serve one drink. After two drinks, we
will remind you that getting on a plane intoxicated is
(53:35):
is an offense. After three drinks, we will point you
in the direction of the sign that says it is
the illegal to board a plane intoxicated, and it says
after four drinks, we will strongly encourage you to leave
the lounge. And I was like, oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
Wow, I mean that really smart, that's really but I
can't imagine drinking four beverages before getting on the plane,
like you either had a rough day or you had
to have a problem where it.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Could be both of those things can be true. Kind
haven't used that one in a while.
Speaker 1 (54:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so well, I well, I will not
have four beverages in one lounge. Maybe I will loungeop
just kidding.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
We can't good the area like four of them I
could get into and like.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
You should should you should go to eat one. You
should have, you know, checked out the buffets. That's that's
my goal. I'm gonna check the buffets. I've got a
very clear goal in mind, and it's the buffet. Yep,
I love buffets.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
I guess we can. We can wrap this one up.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Oh my gosh, we haven't done one of these.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
Well, it's good I liked these.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Little mean we'll see if anybody else does. We just
like talking to each other.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Hit that subscribe button. If you liked this, please let
us know. We'll just do this the whole time.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
And honestly, if you don't like world, yeah, when you
did something that wasn't necessarily tied to geopolitics, you know.
But also if you don't like it, you can say
you don't like it, but that doesn't mean we're going
to change.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
It, right, But it's good to know that you don't
like it.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
Yeah, thank you for letting us know that you don't
like it.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
But this is also feel seen and heard.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, but also this is an old format. We used
to do this all the time. This is one of
our things.
Speaker 2 (55:44):
And ten minutes of geopolitical talk in six hours.
Speaker 1 (55:49):
Six hours of just nonsense, that's my favored part. Yeah,
I like the nonsense too.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
But also let us know in the comments below, no, I.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
Also understand why people wouldn't want to hear it, and don't.
I guess we should have. We should have like prefaced this. Well,
actually I just didn't know we were going to go
off on this little adventure. Otherwise we would have prefaced
the start of it with all right, if you're just
here for the news, get out of here. Leave.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
We're westy on that part. We used to be really
good at that.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
Yeah, I mean it's been a while since we've talked
about kind of what was going on in our lives,
so brings anyways, Happy birthday, baby, Madewin. It's not a baby,
and we love you a whole lot. Thanks for being
the best.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
Love you, Madeline.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah she's gonna be so mad, Yes, yeah, she won't care. Well,
thank you so much for listening to this week explained.
We hope you found it informative and engaging. If you
have any feedback or suggestions for future episodes, we would
love to hear from you. For more in depth coverage
of these stories and more, be sure to follow us
on social media at this week Explained Tianna.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
Thank you so much, and until next week, stay safe
out there.
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P dot com slash this week. Tired of feeling overwhelmed
(02:17):
by the headlines, want to truly understand the why behind
the global chaos and you are in the right place.
Welcome to this week Explained, your weekly deep diving in
the most complex and impactful stories shaping our world. I'm
Tianna and joining me as always is Curvin. Before we
jump into the crucial developments of the week, a quick favor.
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(02:39):
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(02:59):
a fantastic equato engaged directly with the show and other listeners,
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more fantastic podcasts like ours by visiting leonmedianetwork dot com,
part of the awesome Leon Media Network. This week, we're
diving into the latest from Ukraine in Gaza and an
Israeli strike and Yemen targeting Huthi leadership. We're going to start,
(03:21):
as always with the latest developments from the war in Ukraine.
So Kurvin, the situation has not calmed down since we
last spoke, and the diplomatic efforts that follow the summit
between the US and Russia seem to be at a standstill,
which is shocking to nobody. The lack of a face
to face meeting between the two warring leaders is now
the main topic of conversation.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it looks really looks like the conversation has shifted
to what can be done now to help Ukraine after
that huge nothing burger of a Trump Putin summit that
happened a few weeks back. So this past week, President
Zelenski's top aid, Andre Hyermak met with US Special ENVOYE.
Steve Whitkoff. That happened in New York this week. While
(04:08):
Yrmac expressed Ukraine's support for the US push for peace,
he also accused Russia of doing everything that it can
to prevent a meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
And what is Russia's stance in all of this?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I mean, their position has been consistent Kremlin spokesperson to
meet your peskoff to say that while President Putin is
open to a meeting, he's open to it, it must
be and I'll quote him here quote well prepared in
quote with a set agenda. Now he said the expert
level work needed for this meeting is not currently in
(04:46):
full swing, which appears to be Russia's way of stalling
these negotiations. It is an interesting contrast. President Trump says
he is ready to get them to the table, but
it is now Russia saying that the homework has not
been done yet.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
What does not in full swing even mean in this context,
I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So from a Russian perspective, it would mean that there's
been no discussion with them on how to go about
these meetings. And when they say well prepared, what they
set agenda, they really mean with an agenda of you
know what a complete capitulation for Ukraine is going to
(05:32):
look like. And this is why it's like this is
a stalling tactic because they're never going to agree to
the sit down meeting. But if they keep saying they
will agree according to these conditions that will never be met,
they can at least save face publicly to their own
people that we are the ones they're trying to find peace.
(05:53):
It's everyone else that has not come up with a
true plan, Russia's true plan being give Ukraine to Russia.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
But how have they not looked at like I'm saying,
the civilians, you know, Russia's people, like, how have they
not looked at it and seen that other people are
making suggestions and that it's Russia drawing these hard lines
and saying we are not going to come to the
table with Ukraine specifically until they capitulate to all of
(06:24):
our demands. Wouldn't they see that that's them being stubborn
and prideful and greedy and you know, prolonging this protractive war,
this conflict.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And I think some within Russia do see that, But
you've got to understand, it's a semi closed society. They
are getting a lot of their information from Russian state media,
and Russian state media is twisting this and swinging it
into their favors, So the majority of the population does
(06:58):
not see that it is the US and Ukraine and
Europe who are actually putting these things into motion. They
still think that, you know, it's Russia that's sitting there.
The big bad bullies of NATO and Ukraine are pushing
against you know.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
This.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Country of Russia, and they're they're trying to keep them
off of the world stage.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
I feel like that's insulting to the intelligence of the
Russian people though, because I mean, obviously, I mean do
they they when you say it's like a close society
and everything they don't have access.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
To, Yes, that's media is That's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I still understand how saying you know that Putin is,
you know, open to the meeting, but it has to
be well prepared and that the expert level work needed
is quote not in full swing in quote. I don't
see how that is an acceptable excuse.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It really is. Even the people within the country, I
just don't see how to them it would they be like, oh, yes,
that that makes sense. That's everyone else is wrong and
we are fully right. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I mean, if you even look at the US society, right,
when we have two political factions and you've got two
groups of people who are so entrenched in their position,
they only watch the news that speaks to their point
of view. They only read social media posts or see
social media posts that agree with their worldview, and so
(08:36):
they're in this bubble, and so they do sometimes even
with everything that's in front of them that's saying the
exact opposite, they'll stay entrenched in their own belief system.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, you're you're right, You're right. I wasn't thinking about
it from that angle. I was thinking about it from
my perspective. I'm like, how can you not see it? Well, Also,
I'm not a civilian living in Russia right now, So
there's that right there.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, and you do this podcast with an open mind,
th uless and every GINGI it that's going on, and
you don't make your opinions based off of one side
or another. So I think that's part of it.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, that is a huge part of it. So all right, well,
I guess we need to bring it back to the
topic at hand, which you mentioned how the US seems
to be responding, but it feels more like a rhetorical recalibration.
Like a few weeks ago, there was so much optimism,
at least from the White House, but now it feels
(09:40):
like that momentum has stalled and President Trump has gone
from being the chief negotiator to openly expressing skepticism about
a meeting happening at all, and it's a significant pivot.
It makes you wonder if the US is stepping back,
who is going to step in to fill that void.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
That's a great question. You have Europe, which some in Washington,
d C. Now see as a hindrance to peace. Then
you have other actors like China and Turkey. They have
their own interests and their own relationships with Russia and Ukraine.
So if the US steps back, this creates a vacuum
between all of those nations. And look at after the summit.
(10:25):
There's a lot of talk about a two week time
frame for a meeting to be arranged. That deadline has
coming gone the president. President Trump has now said he's
not sure if the meeting is going to happen at all,
even raise the possibility of quote very big consequences end
quote if the war does not end. They also talked
(10:46):
about a potential economic war on Russia. This is the
significant shift in his rhetoric. Remember, the rhetoric was antagonistic
against Ukraine for the most part. Now it's against Russia.
So this entire situation is surely shifted in just a
couple of weeks now.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And it's also drawn reactions from other world leaders like
French President Emmanuel Macrone warned that President Trump risked being
played by Putin if the meeting does not go ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, it's coming from a man who got played by
Putin in twenty twenty two. So I guess it takes
one to no one. But this is something that we
mentioned on this podcast as well. Don't get sucked into
those horrible optics that we saw Macron get sucked into
that abnormally long table to world leaders on opposite sides
(11:39):
of said table. This is a classic Russian power dynamic.
To me, it raises a valid question when does a
photo op then become a strategic disadvantage.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Well, amidst all of this, the violence on the ground
is continuing, like Russia has stepped up its attacks with
a large scale missile and drone strike on Kiev killed
at least twenty one people.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, the current reality on the ground, it's obviously starkly
at odds with the public lead desired diplomatic outcome on
either side appears to be genuinely ready for a negotiated peace. Instead,
they're engaged in a brutal effort to improve the leverage
of either side. Now, this recent surge in Russian attacks
that coupled with Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, so
(12:25):
aren't just military actions. They are tactical moves designed to
weaken the enemies, resolve, and then force that enemy to
the negotiating table from a position of disadvantage. So the
battlefield for now remains the primary theater of negotiation.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
And then there is the unfortunate assassination of former parliament
speaker Andre Pirubi, which adds yet another layer to this.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yeah, it does. The killing of such a high profile figure,
a man so central to Ukraine's pro Western movement, sends
this chilling message to Ukrainians across the country. This happened
in the Ukrainian city of Leviv, which for the most
part has been shielded from this conflict in eastern Ukraine,
and it certainly speaks to the ongoing internal threats by
(13:12):
Russian sabateurs and the deep seated divisions that persist within
the country of Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So what does a targeted killing like this mean for
the morale of the country and the stability of the government.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You know, like this is most certainly a psychological warfare tactic,
something that Russia has been doing since this war began. Now,
he is the former speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, but
he's still a very or was a very striking figure
who was very prominent in Ukrainian politics. Now, like I said,
(13:52):
it is very prominent in this city of Leviv and
western Ukraine, in this part that was largely spared from
the front lines. So the message to the Ukrainian population
from Russia is clear that no one is truly safe.
So this can kind of so panic. It'll definitely erode
the public's sense of security, and I will say that
(14:14):
is a major pillar of their national resilience at this moment.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Well, after three and a half years of discussing this conflict,
it is clear that this war has many more dimensions
than the daily headlines tend to suggest. The assassination of
a political figure in a relatively safe city. It speaks
to a level of psychological warfare that is frankly quite unsettling,
and it makes me think about other conflicts that we
(14:40):
are keeping an eye on, where the human cost is
immense and the lines between military, political and social fronts
are completely blurred. And of course I am alluding to
the situation in the Middle East, specifically in and around Gaza,
which has seen a number of major developments over the
past few days, from a renewed Israeli offensive to talk
of annexation and an escalating humanitarian crisis. The landscape continues
(15:05):
to shift daily, So let us start with the military
developments here. It has been reported that Israel has declared
Gazza City a combat zone, which is what they wanted
to do anyways, and has resumed it's plain defensive. So
this is a significant move and what is your analysis
behind this action at this moment.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, we know that Israel had previously been conducting what
it called tactical pauses for that aid delivery. Now that
is over, that has ended. A stated goal from the
Israeli military is to quote bring back all the kidnapped
hostages and dismantle Hummas in quote. That's what they've said
(15:47):
from the very beginning. So the declaration of Gaza City
as a combat zone indicates a major shift from those
targeted strikes to a broader, more intense ground operation, likely
a decision to lean into Israel's military advantage and attempt
to achieve those stated goals without negotiating with Hamas, and.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
That leads us directly into the humanitarian situation, which has
reached a critical point. The death toll from the war
is immense, and according to the Maas run Gaza Health Ministry,
it is now over sixty three thousand people and more
than three hundred people have died from malnutrition. Outside of
(16:30):
the UN and Gaza Health Ministry, the crisis has been
validated by multiple independent sources. So sorry, Israeli, you're not
going to be able to come in here and swing
this back in your favor, including the IPC, which is
a group of international food security experts, which has officially
declared a famine in Gaza City, which we talked about
that last week. I believe yes, with a new offensive underway,
(16:54):
I mean, this almost seems like a silly question ask,
but how will this inevitably compound the crisis and impact
the ability to get aid to those who need it most.
I guess now, since you know, Israel doesn't have to
hold those pauses for aid to get through because it's
a combat zone and they're just trying to protect their people,
(17:17):
So forget everybody else who's in the crosshairs.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I guess yeah, and I will say the IPC is
as you said, it's a group of international food security experts,
but they work with many different faith based groups, both Christian, Jewish, Islamic,
many different non government organizations and governments. So it's not
(17:41):
something like we talk about with the UN where we go. Yeah, well,
Hamas has kind of infiltrated that part of the UN.
The IPC seems to be multifaceted. And so now they're
saying that this is a famine in Gaza City, while
is is stopping that aid to declare Gaza City a
(18:03):
war zone. And this renewed offensive is going to certainly
exacerbate what's already a desperate humanitarian situation, but there is
certainly a risk reward calculation from the idea. Israeli forces
are operating on the premise that a new offensive is
necessary to neutralize these remaining threats. They have stated their
(18:23):
intent to move civilians out of harm's way, but the
options for save havens are few and far between at
this point. On the ground, aid deliveries are already facing
immense challenges. Reports from non government organizations or NGOs indicate
that blockade damaged infrastructure and active combat zones are severely
(18:45):
restricting much needed access to that AID. The decision to
halt air drops, which yes, that was condemned by the UN.
Having the air drops was condemned by the UN, but
at least they were one source of last resort for
AID that moves into Gaza City. This removes just another
(19:06):
lifeline for the people of Palestine.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Ultimately, both sides are making decisions with grave consequences for
the civilian population. I'm talking about the IDF and HAMAS
trust is at an all time low, and that is
saying something. With the historical trust being already non existent
between the two, this makes the coordination of AID and
the protection of civilians a near impossible task. What we're
(19:32):
witnessing is a complete breakdown of the conditions needed for
basic human survival for a significant portion of the population
of Palestine.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
So basically, what you're saying is that there is no
end in sight for the civilians suffering in Palestine. Let's
transition to the issue of the hostages. The Israeli military
has recovered the remains of two more hostages and it
is believed that nearly fifty remaining, with only about twenty
thought to be alive at this point. The Hostages in
(20:05):
Missing Families Forum is now putting pressure more pressure on
the Israeli government to prioritize it deal because the deal
has been on the back burner for a while. Yeah,
so I long. Yeah, how does this renewed military action
in kaus Of City affect the possibility of a deal
for the remaining hostages?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, the military and political objectives are in conflict here.
On one hand, you've got the intensified offensive that is
seen by some as a way to pressure Hamas into
a deal. Now, the idea is that increased military force
is going to weaken Hamas to the point where they're
going to be forced to negotiate on Israel's terms. On
the other hand, the Hostages in Missing Families Forum is
(20:48):
right to be concerned. A large scale urban offensive inherently
puts the remaining living hostages at extreme risk. It's a
very difficult, very delicate, and weighing the potential of a
military victory against the immediate risk to those still in
captivity is a difficult decision, apparently for the Israeli government.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, from what you are saying, this just doesn't make
logical sense saying you want the hostages released, but then
pushing a violent offensive into the very places those hostages
are being held. It. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. At
this point. I can only foresee a tragic end to
this conflict where everybody loses. It feels that way already. Honestly,
(21:36):
with that said, we have to talk about the political developments,
which feel equally significant. The far right Israeli Finance minister
has called for the annexation of the Gaza Strip if
Hamas refuses to disarm. He is outlined a four week
faced planned to do this, and while Prime Minister Netanya,
who was not publicly commented on this specific proposal, he
(21:58):
has hinted at a plan for Real to take control
of all Gaza, which I had a feeling that was
the end game. Anyways, they weren't too happy to give
up the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians back when they
had to do it. So anyways, what does this kind
of talk from a government minister tell us about the
(22:19):
long term political direction?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, uh, I think I just read a couple of
hours ago that President Trump has put in a ten
year phased plan to move all the Palestinians out and
take ownership of the Gaza Strip. So there's also that
one that is oh America.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
He wants America a ten year plan from had to
take over the Gaza Strip. He really pushing that Trump
Trump Gaza or what they call it? What did they
call it? Whenever those AI images.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Came out of Well, wasn't it Trump Trump Gaza?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Was it Trumpkaza? I don't remember, or what it was
called something with Trump in it.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah, Like the least subtle way, the way that I
read it is that defense contractors would come in to
provide security, remove all of the remaining civilians from the area,
and do a phased.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Return of the area to Israel, who you know, believes
just like you said, they weren't too happy when it
was given back to the Palestinians back in two thousand
and five. So they still believe that this is Israeli land.
And once, as we always say, how far back in
history do we need to go to give someone back
(23:40):
their land? I think we play a very dangerous game
if we just keep playing tit for tat for giving
people their land back that they had when they controlled it.
The I guess the this land is your land? No,
this land is no one's land. Maybe we're just all
(24:00):
here to uh maybe live together in peace and harmony.
And it sounded like a hippie right now. But yeah,
I'm just getting a little sick and tired.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
But you wouldn't have this podcast without humans being humans.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I'd much rather do a different podcasts.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, it would be we'd go back to whenever we'd
go to the beach and drink and just ramble.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, that's the podcast.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I want the earlier episodes where we made no sense
at all.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
When we were while trying to make sense of the world.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Well, trying to make sense of the world made no sense.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But yeah, but you asked from the Israeli perspective, what
is what does this tell us about the long term
political direction? And I think it tells us that they
are very serious and powerful voices within the Israeli government
who are not only thinking about the the future of
the conflict, but are also actively pushing for a fundamentally
(25:05):
different post war reality than many people, whether I would
say many people who are pro Palestine or neutral in
this in this conflict were not wanting of the proposal,
which AMASA has called an official call to exterminate our people,
(25:29):
the people of Palestine, is on the extreme end of
the political spectrum. Like I said, it was far right
Israel's far right government. Now even Prime Minister in net
Yahu's statements about taking military control of all of Gaza
suggest there is zero desire at this point to hand
the territory back to a Palestinian civilian administration.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
The idea of taking complete military control and fundamentally altering
the status of Gaza that is going to have massive
geopolitical consequences. I still believe this proves that while Hamas
started this conflict on October seventh, twenty twenty three, the
war represents an opportunity for Israel to permanently change the
(26:16):
landscape back in their favor. Obviously, we have to take
a quick break, and when we come back, we are
going to pivot to another major flashpoint in the region.
There have been reports of an Israeli airstrike on Houthy
targets in human and we are going to talk about
what that means for the two nations and for the
(26:36):
region as a whole. So stay with us, we'll be
right back. Welcome back, listeners, Thank you for sticking with us.
Before the break, we were talking about the war on
the ground in Gaza and how the IDF is looking
to pressure Hamas. So now let's talk about another Iranian
proxy that Israel's actively targeting. Of course, I am talking
(26:57):
about the Huthis of Yemen this week, the idea of
targeted a government facility in Sana, the capital city of Yemen,
a place that you once called home, dear, I say,
am I even allowed to say that?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I don't even know sure.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I mean it's yeah, I guess you'll you can get
into that and you can explain what that means, at
least according to the mini government, you could it.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
It was my home, it was your home.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So can you walk us through what happened in Sana?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah? Like, I'm sure most of our listeners are people
who know us. Know I spent some time in Yemen
years ago, put on a watch list because of it.
But that's just a fun story from all.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Oh, I's still mad about lesbian on that watch list.
I'm still I'm still mad about them making me throw
away all my baby's formula and throw away her bottles.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And the searches and it laying.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Oh my gosh, all my stuff was always searched and
they one time they opened I think I've complained about
this on the podcast probably two or three times, but
the freaking opened the baby's shampoo, it was Natalie's, Natalie's
special baby shampoo, and didn't close it opened the cans
(28:22):
of formula, didn't close it, and it got all over everything.
And back then it got in my chee hair straightener,
which cheese. When they first came out, they were really
expensive and we were on you were an E four
at that point, and so you know, money was tight.
I could not afford another darn cheese straightener and that
(28:46):
point that I was livid, and it was all in
the name of national security. I got that little fun
little piece of paper where they were like, we checked
all your stuff. Say something about it. Yeah, you're gonna
do about it.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Don't say it to us.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, don't say it to us. We don't care. Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Now, I will say that I was in Yemen before
the Huthis took over, and if you can believe it,
the situation has only gotten worse since that time. I
was there when it was Al Qaeda of the Arabian
Peninsula or AQAP. But as for the most recent IDF strike,
(29:28):
they targeted a compound in the u Mini capital. The
Huthi rebels who control Sannah announced that their de facto
prime minister, along with several other ministers, was killed in
that strike, and Israel later confirmed that they had targeted
a meeting of senior hoof the officials, but they were
still verifying the results of those strikes.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
That sounds like a textbook decapitation strike. This is something
Israel has been known to do, like trying to cut
off cut the head off of these proxies. So is
that what we saw here?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah, it is. It's not some random attack. This was
a targeted operation aimed at the very top of the
Hoofy command structure. Now, from an intelligence perspective, what is
striking is the level of precision. The fact that they
knew this was going on, where it was going on,
and exactly where to hit. So to hit a specific
meeting of ministers suggest a high degree of confidence in
(30:25):
their intelligence, and this fits squarely within a broader strategic
pattern we have seen from Israel against all of the
Iranian proxies.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Well, Israel's intelligence is known to be second to none,
so I'm not surprised that they went in there confidently. Yeah, absolutely,
so you are obviously alluding to the previous strikes against
Hamas and Hezbllah leadership.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And just think about the elimination of
Hamasa's political leader Ismael Hania and Tehran. Last year you
had Hesbala's leader Hassan Nostrala and Beirut, and then we
saw Yahya sin War in Gaza. This, this operation in
(31:11):
Sona looks like the next step in that campaign. So
it's continuous trying to get the head of each leadership.
It's an aggressive, proactive approach, but it's trying to neutralize
threats by removing their most important leaders.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
But have they learned nothing from Camp Captain America in
America head of the Hydra and then two more grow
in its place.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
They have not learned that lesson.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
No, I don't think anyone's learned that lessons best I
know you just mentioned. This is an aggressive, proactive approach
to neutralizing threats by removing their most important leaders, and
from an intelligence perspective, it seems to be successful. Well,
at least you know, on the front end. Israel has
(32:04):
consistently been able to find and eliminate these key figures.
Yet these groups themselves are still here. So why is
Israel so successful at the tactical level like taking out
the leaders, but seemingly unable to dismantle the groups entirely.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Oh, I mean, there's a simple answer for this. It's
that we're not talking about traditional militaries. You can defeat
a traditional military by removing its commanding general because the
military's strength lies in a top down, hierarchical structure. So
when the head is cut off, the body often becomes
disoriented and ineffective. But these are ideological groups. Their power
(32:45):
does not come from a single person. It comes from
an idea or multiple ideas.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
What you are saying here is that these proxies are
not fighting for a man or even a country, but
for a core belief.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, precisely, And I bring that with Hamas and Palestine.
I don't think that Hamas is fighting for Palestine. I
don't think has Belast fighting for Lebanon. I don't think
the Huthis are fighting for Yemen. They are fighting for
various various belief systems. The core of their strength is
the belief that Israel and by extension, Western culture, is
(33:24):
an existential enemy. The directive is not a military order
for them. This is a higher calling, So you cannot
assassinate an ideology. You can kill a leader and might
cause temporary disruption, but another leader is going to rise up,
another leader is going to take their place. The next
attack may also be even more severe. This is driven
(33:47):
by a desire for revenge from that group.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
So these operations are more about disrupting the group's operational
rhythm than defeating them.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's right. They wants
to degrade command and control. I want to create a
state of uncertainty. These decapitation strikes make it harder for
the groups to communicate, plan and execute large scale operations.
But like I said, they cannot eliminate the underlying grievance
or the ideology that fuels them. So it's an ongoing,
(34:18):
long term historical challenge, and history tells us there is
no clear endpoint to this.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
So this is not just about a strike in Yemen.
It is about an ongoing shadow war playing out across
the entire region. The Hoofees have been firing missiles at
Israel and attacking shipping in the Red Sea.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So is this.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Strike a response to that or is that just what
they're using it as an excuse.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
No, I think it's absolutely a component of that larger conflict.
Who these have been an active front and this strike
is a direct attempt to degrade their command and control
so they can open up the Red Sea, so that
Israel can open up the Red Sea to track. Think again,
now there is some nuance here regarding the casualties. The
(35:04):
Hoothy Prime minister who was killed, he was more seen
of as a figurehead. He's not necessarily a part of
the inner circle. The more critical targets would have been
the military leaders, like the Hoothy Defense minister who's a
known missile expert, and the reporting on his status has
been a little bit confusing, So his fate remains a
key piece of unknown information at the moment.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So while the operation was a success in terms of
hitting the target, the full impact of the strike is
still unknown. So what does that uncertainty mean for the
coming weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
I mean it means that the Houthis will likely feel
pressure to retaliate for this strike. Now how they do so,
that's going to be a critical indicator. If we see
a symbolic response, that's going to suggest a leadership that
is more cautious and perhaps more fractured than we previously thought. Now,
if the Hoothie's decide on a significant military response, that
(35:59):
might end Kate that the strike did not truly behead
the organization and they remain a capable and determined threat
now who the leadership has already said they are going
to continue to support Gaza, so we can expect them
to remain engaged in this conflict.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It seems like every time we think we have a
handle on one part of the conflict, a new front
opens up. That is the nature of this current geopolitical environment.
It seems all of this is globally interconnected. Every action
has a reaction, and as you explain each week, intelligence
drives it all. So thank you Curvin as always for
(36:39):
breaking that down for us. Is there anything else you
want to discuss?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Uh? Nothing I could think of now. I'm working on
looking into this relationship between India and China. I just
saw it just before we hit record on here. Modi
from India and g from China had this sort of
photo op and India says that they are kind of
(37:05):
an ally to China, and I talked about how India
was like my one geopolitical country. I was looking at
your wildcard.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I didn't want to say wildcard because you know that's
my North Korea term. But they are a wildcard geopolitically
for sure, because they're playing not just two sides, but
like seven different.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Sides, all the sides.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Hey, you know, you're an emerging economy.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Gotta do what you gotta do, you know, absolutely, I
want to wis show belated Happy birthday to our sweet
little Matdowin.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
She's five years you know, she's five years old.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
No, she turned twenty one yesterday, And what the heck?
What is that about? Like? What on earth?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Wow? So all I got for now? Anything else?
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, I mean that's the all I have for now too.
I just can't believe it. She's twenty one. She is
a fully baked adult in the eyes of the law,
except she can't like some hotels. She can't write hotel
rooms until she's like twenty five or something. Some of
the hotels you have to be maybe it's twenty three.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
It's I think it's twenty one. It's eights, not all
of them.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Not all of them. I can tell you that with abs.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, but that was like thirty years ago years ago.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Even I was trying to get hotel rooms thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
You know what I mean. You're talking about you and
you for warp Tour? Was it warp Tour?
Speaker 1 (38:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Are you in Oklahoma? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
No, no, no, it was Warped Tour. And then there were
the three There was the three dates of Warped Tour
that my sister and her friend and I went to
in Texas who went to go hotel? And then Oklahoma
it was he I picked my sister up from school.
It was for last day of school and we immediately
(39:06):
drove to Oklahoma City because we had an All American
Rejects concert that we wanted to go to. Yeah, and
we couldn't. We had to beg Like. I was so tired,
I couldn't keep my eyes open. And it's really wild
to me thinking about how my parents were just like, yeah, sure,
go to these concerts and go these places, and didn't
follow up and find out where we were going to stay.
(39:29):
They were just like, figure right out on your own,
and we did. Every single time I went in and
begged several hotels. It's like they thought I was gonna
throw a party. But whenever I walked in barely able
to stand because I was exhausted from driving from Homa
all the way to not even into Oklahoma City. It
was like right outside Oklahoma City because I was so tired,
(39:52):
I'm like, you really think I'm gonna go into your
room and throw a party right now? Do I look
like a party animal?
Speaker 2 (40:01):
You're going to a All American Rejects concert? Well, you
know where they hold those now, people's basements and stuff
back yonder.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah. I think they got their start doing something like that.
Didn't they play it with BUCkies or something? I don't know.
I don't know, but either way, I went into a hotel.
It was like the third or fourth one, because the
other three were like no, you're eighteen, you can't or nineteen.
I don't remember if I was eighteen or nineteen, but like, no,
we're not going to give you a room. But luckily
there was this woman who was behind the behind the counter,
(40:33):
and I was like, please, I need a place to sleep,
and she was like, all right, I'm gonna take a
copy of your ID. If there's any damage, you are
going to have to pay for it, and no one
else is allowed in your bedroom. In the room, so
they were like it can only be you and your
sister who we're like. That's all we wanted. And it
(40:56):
was a it was a hole in the wall. We
slept on top of the We slept on top of
the comforter, and we like there was all kinds of
interesting things going outside the door all night. There was
screaming and like banging and all kinds of things, but
we didn't care. We were so exhausted. But I still
(41:19):
am grateful to that lady for letting me get that
hotel room. And she wasn't supposed to, Like, she didn't
have to do that, and all the other motels didn't,
and that was their right they didn't. They can refuse service.
But this lady took a chance, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
She must have been an Abba fan.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Mate, What because I say a chance on any Yeah,
I don't sing it. I'm not gonna Oh, I'm not
gonna sing it. You're the one who brought Abba up.
You didn't even bring that up. That's enough. That's enough
out of.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
You, enough out of me.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yeah, Well that's it.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
What else do we have going? I'm back from the land.
You're back from what the land of land?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Oh? Yeah, he went to England. Got but you had
never been to the Cambridge area before. How was that?
Did you like it?
Speaker 2 (42:18):
I still absolutely hate driving in the UK.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
It had to be worse because the last time we
were you had to drive in England. I was there
and I could look at your phone and tell you
where to go. Yeah, it had to be at hard.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
There are traffic circles are the absolute.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Worst, cause you like going right instead.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Uh oh, I absolutely like going the other way. I
didn't do that, but like sometimes you get into an
intersection and you don't know it's a traffic circle, but
there's like a little little bitty bump right in the middle.
Mm hm, I guess. Yeah, the sign says to make way,
so you should know it's a traffic circle. But if
(43:00):
you were just driving around, you would have no clue
it was a traffic circle. I didn't hit any bikers.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Oh that's that's good. You didn't hit any bikers last time.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
You just almost was very close, very close.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
And thank goodness that biker was paying attention, because you
sure weren't. No, you were trying. You were trying to
pay attention to too many things at once. You were
trying to like keep in mind, stay on the left side,
I cannot go right. That that would have been like
constant in my head. That would have been what I
(43:35):
was thinking about the entire time. Stay left, stay left,
stay left, stay left, And that would definitely override any
other thing that I needed to pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
It was a kind of paid attention to vehicles that
may be merging into So I still think logically the
biker was in the wrong because he was just zooming
through the center of a traffic circle.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, but they're smart to do that though.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
So legally he was right. Logically he was wrong.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Logically, no, logically, with your American mind driving skills, he
was wrong. But he was right in his country. You
were in his country though. You got to keep that
in mind.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
But yeah, that was driving was torturous, and you.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Didn't even eat anything like fun, Like well, I kept
telling you to go have a nice dinner somewhere and
you were just like, no, no, I'm not gonna do that.
And you know, lame bland pizza.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
No, the pizza was good. The what did I did
I get the burger? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:44):
You got you got the burger. It was like three
days ago.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
That is how memorable that burger. Was it was a
frozen patty on two pieces of bread.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Did it taste like a hospital burger? Because I I
love hospital burgers. I don't care. I do not care.
I used to because they are the ones that taste
like school cafeteria burgers. I don't know what it is.
I don't know what it is, but I mean, I
guess it's a comfort thing. It reminds me of childhood,
and that's why I love it so much, because obviously
(45:19):
you don't taste that great, but I love them. I
I ate a burger when my dad was in the hospital.
I ate a burger almost every single day, and I
loved that it just came dry, dry ass bun bland
hockey puck burger. And then you had to go to
the salad bar and get your tongs and take the
(45:41):
toppings separately. And I was like, here for it. I
get so many pickles. Oh, it was awesome. It was awesome. Huh,
No pickles. I don't know if I would trust a
British pickle.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Anyways, I made you know, that's true. I made the
wrong decision, but the decision was made well. I did
have an excellent mill yesterday.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Your dinner kebab.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, oh man, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
I can't wait. I can't wait to try that place.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
It's vegan too, so you'll see.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
I don't want mystery meat. I can get vegan stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
They're actually really famous for their vegan stuff stuff, vegan kebab,
vegan kebab. My favorite thing is the Turkish pizza, which
is a whole pizza rolled up like what, like it's
a kebab.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
What do they put on it?
Speaker 2 (46:48):
They put the donor meat and then all the veggies
and then I make them make I don't make them,
I asked them nicely. Yeah spicy. What did they spice
it up with? Uh? Like chili, the red chili flakes
and they have a spicy sauce. It is so good.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Is it actually spicy? Though? That's the important question.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
It's flavorful. I'll leave it.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
What am I gonna do there?
Speaker 2 (47:17):
You're going to teach people.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
I am going to bring No people are.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Excited because you're gonna they're gonna get Cajun food. What
do you mean?
Speaker 1 (47:31):
People are excited?
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Work? People are excited?
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh okay, okay, well.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Well they they The question was, oh, so your Cajun
I'm like, yep, oh, so you can do gumbo and everything.
No Tian again, though.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I'm Cajun by association. Yes, your dad is the one
who initiated me.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Oh yeah, and you do it perfectly. Mmmmm.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
I was gonna try to make a gluten free gumbo
from Allen's birthday, and she was like, she said, you
are not experimenting with one of my favorite foods on
my birthday.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
What did you guys do sushi? Was it just sushi
or I just I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
I didn't make anything. I got some gluten free pizzas
because she didn't want to do anything because she spent
last week in New York and so she was just like,
I just want to relax. I got her a bottle
of one of those horrible flavored fruit wines, but she
loves she loves those, And like she said, you know,
(48:41):
she's got to pick a struggle. You know she can't well,
she doesn't smoke. I just want to I just want
to say that. But one of these funny things, this
funny thing that she said to me last week was
she if she ever did smoke, it was gonna be
like a man with tobacco wrapped in a paper wrapped
in you know, rolling paper or whatever. She's like, I'm
(49:02):
gonna be like a man if I smoke. She's like,
I can't like fruity drinks and vape.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
I got a picture struggle, for sure, for sure, we
all get one struggle.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, one struggle. And she chose she likes. She chose
the fruity drinks. But she doesn't smoke either, so anyways,
and she doesn't even really like drinking. She just yeah,
she she celebrated her birthday and you know, we did it.
We did keears. Yeah you did. I told you too.
You freaking went home. Yeah, you went home and I
(49:41):
was like, what are you doing? You? You were supposed to,
you know, have a beer dessert or something, and you
got both. What was there dessert?
Speaker 2 (49:49):
It was a brownie with ice cream.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Oh. I bought some gluten free brownies from Wagmans. They
are delicious. They are so budgy and wonderful. I was like, heck, yes,
maybe this isn't so bad after all.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Oh man, it's still a struggle. You'll be happy when
you get out here.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
It is a strungle. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be
like bread, I forgot forgot you forget. You didn't have
to taste like sawdust or like cake or crumble in
my mouth.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
And I'm gonna have to Most people have to pull
their women out of a bar. I'm gonna have to
pull you out of the bakery.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
What do you mean most people have to pull their
women out of a bar? Is a problem? Is not
a problem in Germany?
Speaker 2 (50:39):
No, not in Germany. But I sent you that video
of I'm a I'm a lawyer, Uh a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
She's like I'm an age.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
She wasn't she was one of the assistants.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah. People throwing their weight around like that when they
are clearly in the wrong, it always brings me satisfaction
to see the consequences. It makes me happy, like basically
like pulling rank with a car.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yeah, I guess to tell the story a little bit.
That's the video going around of two women that had
a bit too much at a restaurant and they were
asked to leave, and they didn't want to leave, and
they got into a kerfuffle with the cops that came out,
and one thought that she could throw her rank as
(51:33):
a lawyer at the cops and then found out that, yeah,
she didn't know the law.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
Yeah, she tried to tell him how he needed to
conduct himself and what he needed to do. And I
know there are times when that does need to happen.
There are cops that you know, throw their power around,
and I understand that butt in this situation. He was
trying to be patient. He was trying to be he
was trying to listen to her, but also get her
(52:03):
to comply with what the restaurant wanted her to do,
which was leave. She didn't want to comply. She thought
she was above all those things, and the restaurant was like,
trespass her, cuffer do something, and she just kept insisting.
She was trying to like switch the power dynamic and
make it where she had control over situation by saying,
I demand that you turn off your your body cam.
(52:27):
You have to do that. As a civilian, you have
to do that.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
And he's like, you bailed it on that one. Yeah,
she had to switch the power dynamic.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, and the endgame was just freakin walk out, just leave,
That's all you had to do. This didn't have to
turn into like an ego thing, just freaking like you
already messed up. You had a few too many beverages,
which happened sometimes, and you were becoming belligerent and they
(52:57):
asked you to leave, and all you had to do
was comply. And there are literally signs in every business
all over the world that say right to deny service,
and they were denying you service, So get the f
out of there.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
In the speaking of right to deny service, in the
lounge at the airport, there was a sign that said,
after we will serve one drink. After two drinks, we
will remind you that getting on a plane intoxicated is
(53:35):
is an offense. After three drinks, we will point you
in the direction of the sign that says it is
the illegal to board a plane intoxicated, and it says
after four drinks, we will strongly encourage you to leave
the lounge. And I was like, oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
Wow, I mean that really smart, that's really but I
can't imagine drinking four beverages before getting on the plane,
like you either had a rough day or you had
to have a problem where it.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Could be both of those things can be true. Kind
haven't used that one in a while.
Speaker 1 (54:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so well, I well, I will not
have four beverages in one lounge. Maybe I will loungeop
just kidding.
Speaker 2 (54:28):
We can't good the area like four of them I
could get into and like.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
You should should you should go to eat one. You
should have, you know, checked out the buffets. That's that's
my goal. I'm gonna check the buffets. I've got a
very clear goal in mind, and it's the buffet. Yep,
I love buffets.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
I guess we can. We can wrap this one up.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Oh my gosh, we haven't done one of these.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
Well, it's good I liked these.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Little mean we'll see if anybody else does. We just
like talking to each other.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Hit that subscribe button. If you liked this, please let
us know. We'll just do this the whole time.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
And honestly, if you don't like world, yeah, when you
did something that wasn't necessarily tied to geopolitics, you know.
But also if you don't like it, you can say
you don't like it, but that doesn't mean we're going
to change.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
It, right, But it's good to know that you don't
like it.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
Yeah, thank you for letting us know that you don't
like it.
Speaker 2 (55:36):
But this is also feel seen and heard.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, but also this is an old format. We used
to do this all the time. This is one of
our things.
Speaker 2 (55:44):
And ten minutes of geopolitical talk in six hours.
Speaker 1 (55:49):
Six hours of just nonsense, that's my favored part. Yeah,
I like the nonsense too.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
But also let us know in the comments below, no, I.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
Also understand why people wouldn't want to hear it, and don't.
I guess we should have. We should have like prefaced this. Well,
actually I just didn't know we were going to go
off on this little adventure. Otherwise we would have prefaced
the start of it with all right, if you're just
here for the news, get out of here. Leave.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
We're westy on that part. We used to be really
good at that.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
Yeah, I mean it's been a while since we've talked
about kind of what was going on in our lives,
so brings anyways, Happy birthday, baby, Madewin. It's not a baby,
and we love you a whole lot. Thanks for being
the best.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
Love you, Madeline.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah she's gonna be so mad, Yes, yeah, she won't care. Well,
thank you so much for listening to this week explained.
We hope you found it informative and engaging. If you
have any feedback or suggestions for future episodes, we would
love to hear from you. For more in depth coverage
of these stories and more, be sure to follow us
on social media at this week Explained Tianna.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
Thank you so much, and until next week, stay safe
out there.
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