PROGRAM NOTES 07/03/26-
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This weeks show features stories fromn RADIO DEUTSCHE-WELLE and RADIO HAVANA CUBA.

From GERMANY- Clearly one of the major topics in Europe this week was the all time record breaking heat in many countries. All the reports I heard directly attributed the heat to human induced climate change, primarily due to fossil fuels. Europe is warming at twice the rate of the global average- and as I record this record temperatures are expected for many parts of the US. The report is an excerpted interview with Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK. This week German courts charged a Ukrainian member of the armed forces with being involved in bombing the Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022 which ended Russian supplied gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea. The court then went on to accuse the Ukrainian government with involvement in the sabotage which was vehemently denied by Zelensky when the attack occurred. Then there was a DW special called "How the US shapes the world- 250 years of power and policy." It is an historical viewpoint on the US celebration of 250 years since signing the declaration of Independence. In this excerpted version the questions of American isolation, diplomacy, and wars are considered. Most of the founding fathers were opposed to getting too involved in foreign conflicts. Researchers counted 500 US foreign interventions globally, a third of them in Latin America, and a new one every year since 1974. The US has also built one of the largest diplomatic networks in the world to maintain ties with other governments. In recent times China has become the biggest diplomatic player in the world. In recent years the US global image has declined in 45 out of 48 countries surveyed.

From CUBA- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez announced a request for a UN session next Tuesday to address the US economic and now energy blockade, and its multi-dimensional aggression against Cuba. In Peru Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the former disgraced dictator of the country, appears to have won the Presidential election, with overseas voters giving her the victory. Israel has continued to attack Lebanon raising fears that Tel Aviv wants to wreck the peace deal with Iran. Israeli attacks continued in Gaza while the so-called Board of Peace is planning a sweeping grant of immunity for itself, and the ability to obtain public property free of charge.

"Man proposes; nature disposes. We are seldom more vulnerable than when we feel insulated."
--George Monbiot