State of the World from NPR - Looking Back: Making Music from the Sounds of War
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Edition for Dec. 29. The Department of Justice launches investigations into companies including Google and Verizon over workplace DEI programs, using an antifraud law to try to advance the president’s political agenda. Plus, Lululemon’s founder launches a proxy fight to shake up the struggling retailer’s board. And we’ll look at the evolving security threats likely to drive defense spending in 2026 with the help of WSJ reporter Alistair MacDonald and Dragonfly’s Matt Ince. Luke Vargas hosts.
Programming note: What’s News is publishing once a day through Jan. 2.
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President Zelensky says the US has offered security guarantees for fifteen years although he wished it could be longer. Also; China conducts large-scale military exercises around Taiwan; India’s Supreme Court puts on hold an order that suspended the life sentence of a former member of the governing BJP party for raping a teenager; Israel's announcement that it will formally recognise Somalia's breakaway region, Somaliland, is condemned by regional blocs and neighbouring countries; a crackdown on bird poaching in China and Cristiano Ronaldo says he won't stop playing football until he has scored one-thousand goals.
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The Maidan Massacre of February 2014 supposedly involved Ukrainian government troops tied to President Viktor Yanukovych, a Russian ally, leading to his overthrow. But what if it was a false flag operation done to make people blame the government?
Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/revisiting-maidan-massacre
BBC reporters travel under tight security to villages near the site of Christmas Day airstrikes in north-west Nigeria, targeting camps linked to Lakurawa, a militant group affiliated with the Islamic State. Locals describe life under threat, with farmers accusing militants of seizing livestock, enforcing levies and embedding themselves in border communities where state presence is minimal.
We also turn to AFCON 2025, where belief and football often collide. From pre-match rituals to deeply rooted ideas about luck and destiny, we explore how superstition continues to shape African football, with players reflecting on why these practices persist at the continent’s biggest tournaments.
Presenter : Nkechi Ogbonna Producers: Chiamaka Dike, Bella Twine, Keikantse Shumba, Blessing Aderogba Technical Producer: Terry Chege Senior Producer: Daniel Dadzie Editors: Samuel Murunga and Maryam Abdalla
Plus: Psychiatrists say using AI chatbots might be linked to psychosis. And some audiobooks are outselling hardcovers. Julie Chang hosts.
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Taiwan has put its forces on high alert after China began a live-fire rehearsal of a blockade of the island. Is Beijing responding to a recent US-Taiwan arms deal? Also in the programme: a special report from Myanmar, where some people have been voting in elections for the first time since a military coup five years ago; and how the discovery of a silver coin has excited historians in Scotland. (Photo: Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets prepare for takeoff at an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, 29 December 2025. Reaction in Taiwan after China announces live fire drill around Taiwan - 29 Dec 2025. Credit: Photo by Ritchie B Tongo/EPA/Shutterstock)
Move over “Be Kind, Rewind.” The new slogan is “Take a Movie, Leave a Movie.” That’s right. A Blockbuster nostalgia trip could be coming to a yard near you. Today, we visit Salt Lake City, which just got its very first Free Blockbuster — like a lending library but for DVDs and VHS tapes. Also on today's show: divisions at the Federal Reserve and a coin buried for centuries in the Scottish woods.

As South Dakota tribes mark the 135th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre, they face a headwind of history revision by the Trump administration. After years of admonishment by tribal leaders to rescind the Medals of Honor awarded to the soldiers who participated in the massacre, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instead praised the soldiers for their bravery and declared that the medals will stand. Since then, President Donald Trump signed legislation preserving land at the site in honor of the tragedy. We’ll get perspective on how Wounded Knee is remembered.
GUESTS
Jeff Means (Oglala Lakota), associate professor of history and department chair at the University of Wyoming
Courtney Yellow Fat (Hunkpapa Lakota), historian and chief cultural consultant and co-producer with the Densmore/Lakota Songs Repatriation Project
Willard Malebear Jr. (Hunkpapa Lakota), current organizer of the Dakota 38+2 Memorial Run
Break 1 Music: Calvin Jumping Bull’s Memorial Song (song) Porcupine Singers (artist) Alowanpi – Songs Of Honoring – Lakota Classics: Past & Present, Vol. 1 (album)
Break 2 Music: Oshki Manitou (song) Chuck Copenace (artist) Oshki Manitou (album)
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Philosopher, author, and co-host of Dystopia Now Émile Torres joins Bad Faith to discuss his coverage of Noam Chomsky & the Epstein files before engaging in a broader conversation about Big Tech titans' emphasis on a dystopian transhumanism that's rooted in eugenics and an unfounded faith in their own genetic superiority. How should the left compete with this Silicon Valley vision of the future? Does it look like Star Trek? Plur1bus? Or Bicentennial Man? Is human extinction necessarily bad if our moral "accounting" balances the beauty of humanity against our capacity for cruelty? A fascinating conversation you won't want to skip.
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Produced by Armand Aviram.
Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).