Everybody forced here ripping 2023 Bowman Chrome baseball hobby 12 box full case number 48 pick your team style Got crispy with the Phillies Christopher E. Brewers Chunway Red Sox Kurt S. Orioles Daniel L. Cubs David S. Rockies Don B twins and Mets Edge has the Angels Eric D. Rangers Felix with the Astros Jeffrey with the Padres Braves and Dodgers Jose with the Nats Josh H. Tigers Kevin F. Guardians Mark Anthony Reds Matthew B. A's Michael G. Jays Michael A with the Royals Payton has the Cardinals Scott C. Ray's Shane H. White Sox Timothy M. Has the Marlins Todd H. Diamondbacks Tom C with the Mariners Vadim has the Pirates Vincent with the Yankees and Yawning with the Giants. Good luck everybody. Let's go ahead and get started. I Want to pull a retrofractor now. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. Hi. I'm not sure yet We will probably decide that on we'll probably see what we end up getting it for him I don't even know if they're in transit yet. We'll have to get it from distributors first I think blacks out of around like 400 last year or something like that Sunday Sunday. Come on Patriots Don't totally disappoint us We got three points already. You know what that's that's pretty great Dude, they're just oh That's that's a fumble six right away Dude, I don't know. I watched it happen. It was brutal Well, then Van der Ash touchdown Well, then Come on need a big hit to cheer me up for somebody here Walcott. I don't know why he thought he had time there. Aqua right way rookie Riley Greene to 199 Detroit Celestine First speckle auto Abner e-rebaid to 299 Brewers We're just jake was talking about you Hit the hit the Celestine shimmer Alex Ramirez and dude and they faked the extra point and got it When a Mike McCarthy start out coaching Bill Belichick Saved it That was sad. Yeah somebody Purple to 250 is jet Williams with the Mets Bucks dub today. Let's go Bucks dub going all the way Three and one Tampa Bay Buccaneers division champs Look at us. Who would have thought not me? I think they're already out of the Caleb Williams sweepstakes at three and one First auto is Dimitri or Cassantes for the Diamondbacks Chris on days Bar them cannons, baby To 499 or hell photo goes to the Marlins on the on the flag 499 alfato The extra fake extra point is just a an unnecessary flex if you ask me it's Come on bow man Kyle you and Jake should buy a cannon for the shop, and then we get fired off whenever good whenever the Bucks win I can shoot That's a really good idea actually Human cannon ball Pretty cool Refractor whimer whimer factor to 499 brewers The first refractor auto it's a 499 Mariners Axel Sanchez Man yeah, they will Alexander If you don't if you end up not hitting something like floss your numbers I think we said we sent a hit list back of some sort So I'm assuming those are shipped together future shimmer is bergoya to 199 Phillies. Oh Man football spots moving Gold Strowman Cubs on the flag It's a 50 the PR flag Because for some reason the United States looked at their pitching it was like we're good Good you're good Dude, I can't leave the one for the fake you'll go along us. You know she that came to the league Salas Goalston with the touchdown just outrageous dude first auto Ricardo oliva for the twins What'll play by the holder? Got a green refractor first bowman on Helsa paid up hubs Number 62 of 99. All right, where are we at on or to go? Togo for teams in Cosmic Iran sale Cubs Astros Royals Marlins Mets Mariners Rays and Rangers good teams there That's not good. Like Like really bad or just like Just like favoring something I was going in Rico. I like Mike. Oh, well, they didn't take him to the tent Bruce Almighty How do you get hurt? You landed like heart like weird on one of his feet All right For due for a monster, I think we are due for a monster. Come on Well, I'll super factor Cool day when a super factor bound the the buyback things purple first at 250 is to pay it up for the Cubs It's true first auto is Hans Montero for the Yankees Jake won the parking lot brawl at trade night first shimmer is Rainer Arias for the Giants everybody saw it too Yeah, it would have broke the internet. They're like it would have crashed the internet too many people would have watched it yellow orange Adrian Pinto to 75 first moment for the Blue Jays He really is. He's doing good things It could also be that it's the Arizona Cardinals are playing against got an outman moment ascension for the Dodgers probably a little bit of both I would think I need to stop getting discord notifications Because I will never check discord. I'm just kidding Rainer Arias Blu-ray wave first bowman autograph Rockies Jesus Bulgarian to 150 There you go, Rocky Harper to 499 fills you injury Vargas you might make an appearance in chat Doubt it yeah, the Capri's the Capri's fire They should for sure just trade him into the Patriots like a fifth round pick No, dude, he got her shot white That's just true. This is true three toddy's today I'll think white scored it all white is good though to be fair to be fair I've been debating getting away Get a white White wagers Cosses there Herbert got off a railway rookie gunner Henderson to 199 gunna Orioles gunna. I don't know where Sean is First auto Louise ready guys for the Cardinals He is off today, so I don't know first shimmer is Jose Urardo for the Marlins UCF Blue it dude. You see that our team, dude. Yeah, I care so much about them. Yep Die hard yellow refractor Xander to 75 for the Padres, right? Yeah, we care so much about him I Cost as it came to the league. Yeah, dolphins events is not great You start them first your fracture auto the 499 for the Orioles Anderson de los Santos Every break I will pull an under some delos. I'll just say it's your boy at least a parallel of Flag the 499 mnese nationals Well, then well, then it's a great bit. It's a great bit I think you do grabbing a spot Three to go on to a whole ease and then there's eight and nine to go on Cosmic chrome with teams on sale teams on sailorino Chris sailorino Chris sailorino, how does that start the year go? I was all right. I think they want yesterday, right? Okay, it's okay Orioles only score like two runs the whole game is like two nothing. It was fine Do this last game of the Red Sox season, okay Dang well time to go get show. Hey Yeah, I'm a moto Big three I thought you said galees. I was like, I guess we can get Jesus galees. Yeah It's just trade for a prospect not even an alley players a prospect Are you even allowed to trade prospects or prospects and only players of all? Just never happens. That's how trio was Wave refractor Reese Hoskins Phillies numbered to 100 Who's that first woman auto Yaniela boy for the A's you boy la boy Exactly my point Purple shimmer to 250 Lazaro Montez mariners Justin feels like good today, but The bears pulled the bears and still lost somehow We're career factor to 499 Miguel Vargas for the Dodgers Minor arias there is the NFC really gonna come down to Eagles and Niners again Yeah, that's true shady, but at the same time like it shouldn't all come down to like fields How do you go by that many in this like loose first auto Brett wisely for the raise you Andrew Vargas? Yeah, probably has best game his career today We refracted a 150 is our color Stanton Yankees She wants bodies running wherever stream elements, but to go away and come back But Lamar King jr. On the base auto Padres G's galees Well, they're driving. Oh, this is bad. Andrews are stinky, dude steamers Come on Patriots, but embarrassing us. You believe this is the tea that almost beat the dolphins Pat's home Pat's on the road is so different blue refractor rookie to 150 Nolan Jones Rockies Pat's and Foch for such a different team Probably can't beat anybody on the road except the Jets Would be cool to see the Jets beat the Chiefs tonight. I just Yeah, they did honor. Yeah Got a speckle first auto one corny L the 299 for the dime of X And all of us got beat be good Refractor to 499 is menace flag for the Nets. We were texting a bit ago. Yeah, it was a Not a good showing for the Finns The one time I wanted the dolphins to win a game Celestine can't count on them for anything When I want to lose they win when I want to win they lose That is Fuchsia pink paper rave to 1.99 Jet Williams for the Mets base auto Ash Joe's last five mojo card so hot it's melting. There you go. Let's go Shimmer Mechia Arias choice next everybody choice next choose choice The best choice if they're gonna fake it again here Would that be the ultimate is just do it again? Oh, they won't dare do it again Can the bears should probably fire their head coach right away right like immediately See if this was European football the coach would be fired right now like it would not even be a question If you're on a Historic franchise and you start off poorly. You're just gone, especially if you're new they're like, all right Well, this isn't working out through through three weeks. See you later, dude Yeah, and I felt teams though. They just wait way too long Way too long three to go on choice three to go Yeah, if it's play better than the score was outside of deep like their offense was fine But yeah defense not great, but it's it's the division opponent So they get the they get a shot of them again, but in Miami next time so see what happens choose choice. Let's get it Let's get it More spots coming in that mixture is almost full that baseball mixer Yes, I call you got to make a trash list because you're in Sean's place That'd be so funny if you made one and everybody's like, oh Jake Shashles was the best Anytime and it came to the league Mazataki Yoshida Red Sox the 150 it's a Mickey Mouse trash list doesn't count real shady. Yeah So I was saying go into the week. I was like dolphins offense looks good But their defense has not looked great like they give up Like 20 points of the Patriots Got Rainer Arias. You can't just you can't just be one-dimensional, right? You can't just have one really good thing about your team and Consistently win football games First auto you want the river for the Nationals Steve Steve Steve Never seen it what No, we're here factor Gunner Henderson to 499 Orioles Louise Rivera first woman base auto White Sox Right, but that doesn't remind me that oh, yeah, I have seen it Or Carol iconic is Mr. T good in it Purple refractor Siege or James Wood the 250 for the Nationals First base auto is one Benjamin for the Guardians It's all about them Benjamins Bill and Steve Belichick Get it done iconic out the Rutschman shimmer of William Bergoglia What's up Steve? What you got yeah, what's up, man yellow rookie is von Grissom to 75 for the Braves I got got three to go in choice iconic Alvarez, oh Alvarez it came to the league when Ipa my a All right Steve. What's going on here? First refractor auto is right there Salinas to 499 Braves Atomic prospect process for the Brewers is Jackson choreo to 150 Well, he gave us the heart he's trying to he's trying to be nice now and then mess with us later Appreciate the heart Well Sean's not here. So I guess I'll have to tell you makes it a water, Steve. I Want to do that Now if anything comes to tabula, you have to get get this guy out of here get him far away Guys got problems Mitchell has it going So 499 flag is Nikki Lopez Where's Nikki Lopez at? Braves Nikki Lopez That was a very weird first down that we just got Felene Celeste and first woman auto for Seattle You go Seattle wall cut green shimmer is Jason choreo to 99 Guardians Yeah, what is our stream on the spot or any like messages even dropping a giant? I Haven't seen it. I thought she knows just are you were just our twitch bot That's weird, huh? There we go Robert B with some choice Matt s as well. He's down to one If we use you guys link in a moment here The Bowman chrome cosmic the light mixer sold out Yeah, I just wanted to go on choice seven and eight to go on cosmic. Well, Mac. Let's get it I was at sepo. Jay anything cool fuchsia Chris Bryant out of 299 For the Rocks, why would you call Chris? See crying Have you ever seen that awkward way way array wave rookie is Jordan Walker to 199 cardinals? See what have you seen that? No, what is it? It's from do perfect No purple first auto 250 is Louis Serna Yankees Shimmer Davidson De La Santos Diamondbacks Chris Bryant had like tanks Speckled at 299 Jet Williams Mets go up. Oh Oppo appreciate you get linked for What's it called going? Cosmic cosmic first woman auto Emmanuel Torreiro for the Pirates Oh Flag is all far out again to 499 for the Marlins NFL London is the next London game Next week. Who's the next week? Jax are playing again in London. Yeah, they stand two weeks Interesting Yeah, so they just said there Pretty wild Ali Rutschman on the image variations short print for the Orioles Adley Kletzman going to the playoffs. There he is the bye week The bye not even like a full week by five days Which is an eternity for baseball though is any Volpe Considering how First auto Chris Newell for the Dodgers.  Yeah, you can find checklists for anything. You just go to Google and type in the set and then type in checklists You can also search them at cardboard connection comm Pretty easy to find the checklist. Yeah. Okay guys. Let's get cosmic going here. What do you what do you mean? Images I don't think there's a site that just has all of them, you know The fix six refractor to 499 Jackson Meryl Padres The Patriots are unwatchable. Hey, we can still go get Caleb Williams though We can try First auto is Peyton Williams for the Blue Jays Are you ever in Zappie or something shimmers Jackson choreo brewers? Doesn't matter this point Come on Steve What Steve want Steve five to go on cosmic Teams on sale Mmm-hmm. What was that not what you just did but terrible Sounded like a like a robot. Be boop. I am a Okay, let's see Sunday funded down at 10 now 10 to go on the Sunday funny football mixer is over two-thirds full NC photo flawless hobby and see hobby Like photos got select Mosaic Kyle Hello again, Steve go again Think Steve might need to mix it a water Oh Any of the Jacob Mayfield treatment out? Fracture to 499 Andy Acevedo for the Nationals Who's one of that football tomorrow first auto is Javier Valdes braves Come on Steve mix in a mix in a mixer purple shimmer first as Louise Torres 250 angels mix in a mixer spot to your on your credit card Refractor to 499 Alex Ramirez Mets Salas, come on big hit. Come on Atomic Invicta Yankees Roger Karyas to 150 But that was tonight is that tomorrow That's the night game Collie's a water now and purple first auto Louise Serna again the 250 Yankees Green refractor Sandi Alcantara on the flag For the Marlins to 99 They should put in a Holy Cunningham Is there a case hidden these? The short print is the Bowman ascensions insert 499 is drew waters rookie for the Royals Pull the midnight protea You go Look at this Mac Jones masterclass we got going on Okay, well that was Straight up like the worst shop I've ever seen in my life but Hunter Henry The one past Mac is just like right on the money to somebody without without anyone like in his face in this game Hunter Henry's like First auto Serna again for the Yankees Giant Seahawks. That's a solid game actually Like Giants are decent Sab's lying to you. Oh boy First awkward 125 inches if you leave for the Twins. Come on. Sab mix in water It is very weird to have Jake top-owning for me and Sam here on a Sunday like it doesn't feel like a Sunday Other than the fact that the Pats are losing out feels like Sunday Okay all as well I'm not gonna troll him because I got I got nothing 499 refractor paying you for the asterisks.  I think it's okay. I think I'm gonna lose but I think they're all right I'm doing terribly though clearly I am not like I'm like tuned out of fantasy like already I'm already done with fantasy football Purple shimmer to 250 is sepata for the Cubs. That's we'll do it's not the best case guys Not the best case so it seems to pretty well though. Got choice next Maybe choice will turn some fortunes around for some folks Nice spots move for I'm a collegiate for cosmic. Yeah, we got free cap arena Yeah, I'll take it all why not you got it if you got it if you got it though, we're good There's a variation Adley-Ruchman Flagger factors 499 Nikki Lopez Maneces twice Alfaro twice Jackson Merrill Alex Ramirez, Acevedo, Pena Harper Gunnar Weimer drew waters Miguel Vargas to 299 we had Chris Bryant jet Williams to 250 Lazarus Montez Luis Torres on House of Peta James Wood jet Williams and on House of Peta 2199 we had Walker Gunna Gunna Riley Green She's Margoia jet Williams to 150 is Stanton Nolan Jones Jackson Shorio Masataki Yoshida Roderick Arias to 125 Shevely to 100 Hoskins to 99 Jason Shorio, Sandy Alcantra on House of Peta to 75 Pinto Bogarts and Grissom To 50 we had Strowman and Brandon and the autos were of Melton Lamar King Benjamin Luis Reyes Luis Serna failing Celestin Juanda Rivera, Brett Wisely, Peyton Williams, Javier Valdes, Emmanuel Torreiro, Yaniel Laboy, Luis Rodriguez, Chris Newell Hans Montero, Ricardo Olivaar, Dmitryo Crisantes, the 499 of Ortega Anderson de Los Santos, Roy Gracilinas and Axel Senchez to 299 Juan Corneal, Abner Yuribay to 250 Serna and Serna into 150 Ugarin Yeah, that's not the best case, unfortunately moving on now to Bumper Chrome Choice


The world we want to live in tomorrow begins with the way we do business today. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. We are in a chaotic, noisy world and so there's lots to distract consumers and so creativity becomes the tool that we can use to cut through and engage. But how do you ensure that you keep the level of creativity elevated in your organisation? So the first thing to do for brands of our loved brands, our brands such as M&M's, Snickers, we have brilliant, generationally loved brands. We stick to the core of the brand. We know what it stands for. Our teams who have worked on it, the brand's purpose are clear. And then we elevate the creativity by not restraining the work around us. As long as you are true to the brand, culturally relevant and true to the community that the brand serves, then the creatives come up with brilliant ideas. That's a really fascinating observation around this idea of an organisation that doesn't think in quarters, it thinks in generations, so therefore has to sort of purpose naturally becomes ingrained. But how do you stop purpose from being kind of virtuosignal, where it just becomes a thing that you do to look good and really mean it? Yeah, so let me step back and make an observation about Mars. I am actually quite new to the company. I joined in October. Mars has been founded with generational thinking, very ahead of its time purpose. So of course Mars wrote a letter in 1947 where he said he introduced the concept of mutuality and he said, the world we want to live in tomorrow begins with the way we do business today. So that is really, and the five principles of the company is really embedded in the thinking and that brings a generational approach to how we do business. And what are the issues of our generation that we need to have a positive impact on? Our planet is under stress, of course. Our society is under stress. People are suffering from loneliness. The national evolution of the company's founding principle is to the brands to take M&M's for instance. M&M's is 80 years strong and it has always been about sharing and the power of fun to share. When the team looked at them in the last decade, how it was coming across, it needed some updating. So what is today's expression of sharing? It's a sense of belonging. So we redefine or re-modernize our purpose as creating a world where everyone feels like they belong. And because our tone is fun, it's for the fun kind. So we call our community, or in fact, in the case of M&M's, our fandom, the fun kind. So we're building a world that is inclusive for all fun kinds. You did ask, we think about it in a couple of manners. So is it clear what the brand stands for? Is it connected to what its community is interested in? Is it relevant to the culture? And is their commitment, long term commitment, you will find that we put our money where our mouth is. We work with NGOs. We make real world impact while also staying true to the purpose over multiple years, usually a decade. Again, it comes back to that, like, thinking in generations. Yes. It is so core in the fabric of the company. Completely. I like it. But actually, building on that point, because when you think ahead or when you're trying to kind of plot what comes next and continue to remain relevant with consumers, implied in that is kind of keeping on top of consumer expectation. So it's funny, I feel like sometimes we forget that we just lived through COVID-19 and we saw an acceleration of kind of changes in terms of consumer behavior. But how do you stay one step ahead and keep up with that change? In terms of techniques, of course, we have brilliant human intelligence associates, the teams, and also digital data and analytics teams who bring us the data points and we analyze. But you probably didn't ask about the technicalities of it. It's more understanding the patterns. And what is the pattern today? As I mentioned, with the new way of living, people live fluid lives. They live online and offline. Their consumer journeys are nonlinear. They go across touch points. And within that, they're expecting meaningful, personalized offers and relationships and to be able to experience the brands in a seamless manner. So what we say is we want to give the right message at the right time. This has been around for a long time. However, we also add now the right offer at every relevant touch point for everyone. So underscoring the personalization aspect and underscoring the fact that marketing, sales, message, product are now interlinked. Just a fun fact, one of our core categories in China this year, 97% of the growth came from interest commerce. So people are used to now engaging with content. And when it makes sense to them, when it's meaningful to them, they just go to the buy button and just get the product that they wish for. So that personalization, and I want it now, are the two shifts in the consumer's habits. And our job is to make them have integrated brand experiences through those multiple and nonlinear journeys. OK, so that's to enable that sort of personalization at scale does require access to data. Right. And I'm guessing that you don't naturally have a lot of primary data to hand, just given the way in which the relationship with the consumer happens. So how are you finding that data? So this is easier said than done. So we do have a method. So we say that we put the consumer and customer at the center. We connect our expert functions beyond marketing, marketing, sales, shopper, human insights and power them with data analytics. We do have very large communities. And to be able to get the data, first party data, or now we call some of them zero party data, we need to have a value exchange with our community. And when you are anchored in the purpose and actually doing real impact and having engagement with your community that is authentic, that is continuous, they do find the value and they do give us their data and they give us the license to work with that because they know that we will respect the rights and always work within the purpose that they've shared it for. Your title, Chief Growth Officer. Yes. So I'm obsessive about kind of words and meaning. All right. And so it's an interesting because there is a distinction between Chief Growth Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Right. In some people's eyes. So how do you kind of describe your role and your remit within Mars-Rickley? So I take care of marketing, sales, innovation and decommers. So that is sort of the scope. But what I truly do is I get to take care of and steward brilliant iconic brands like M&Ms, like Snickers, like the Galaxy. So we are the brand builders. My team is the brand builder. We take care of the portfolio decisions. Of course, the digitization and the capability building of our associates to win in this new world. We are stewards of growth, but of course it takes a village, right? And we have brilliant associates with the right mindset, the growth mindset and an ever learning culture. So AI popped up earlier. All right. Let's come back to it. So thinking about the context of your remit. Like what impact will AI have on it or maybe currently does? Yes. AI is not new. Of course, we do use it. But the conversation is happening more on the public AI and the generative AI. My view, as is the case with every technology breakthrough, there's a little bit of the fear of the less known, right? And that brings about a debate that happens very sharply. My view is to look at it in a balanced way. So let's make sure that we take care of the responsibility part of it. In Mars, we do work with Microsoft and Institute of Responsible AI to make sure that it respects IPs, the decisions remain with humans. We don't exacerbate biases. So we do take that very seriously. And I also encourage to see the potential in it. So AI has the ability to process billions of data points and provide insights that are deeper than any one human can do. With the help of those insights, we can amplify human ingenuity. I don't find AI as to replace, but it will amplify the brilliance so the ideas get better and better, more connected to the community. And generative AI is going to give us the ability to execute the personalization at scale. So the potential is, for me, amplifying creativity and bringing it relevant to the individual and the communities with the shared wishes or passion points, more so than the pure cold-hearted efficiency of it. So thinking about personalization, there is, for many consumers or people, there is an expectation that the brand will understand who they are, both in terms of gender, race. So when we think about diversity and ensuring that we include all people, how are you tackling that? So it depends on the brand's purpose. So if we take M&Ms, which is all about sense of belonging, as I said, our joining factor or our fabric is all about fun. So we define fun kind as everyone who wants, everyone can live in this world. We're building a world that is, that everyone feels like they can belong. So it is beyond gender, race, ethnicity. It is all inclusive. So we are inviting everyone. And our one ask is that we engage with conversations that matter for everyone and we build bridges between those diverse points of view or diverse passion points and use fun. Fun as the language of that. I love that, we found it is the thing that pulls people together, like humor, fun, we can all... It resonates in every culture, every country. We are a global business, we don't talk about that a lot. You saw in the Super Bowl ad, which was the last expression of, last iteration of M&Ms campaign, which was supposed to be a U.S. campaign. Overnight, actually, at the minute it passed through boundaries to the English-speaking world and even to other languages as well. So when the community is engaged and you create inspiration and fun, the engagement cuts across. So that's an interesting point. Sometimes we see things that spread around the world and think it happens by accident. What you're articulating feels like it's a lot more deliberate. I know one of the challenges in global marketing is finding an insight that resonates across the globe but stops short of being a cliche. So how do you mine for insights that work across the world? Yeah, that is the holy grail of the answer, right? So the question. So I'll give you an example from our chocolate brand, Dove Galaxy. When we have a human-to-human impact, everyone across the world subscribed to it is inspired to it. So Dove Galaxy, of course, its purpose is to empower women all through us, its supply chain, it's invested together with NGOs, and we are aiming to impact one million people. And the campaign idea that the team came up with is, your pleasure has promise. And they tested it in China, in the UK, in the Middle East. Works everywhere. Because human-to-human impact, that insight of helping your fellow person, no matter where you are in the world, it just resonates. And if it is true and connected to the brand, which in our case, it is to Dove Galaxy, it's just very natural. And the consumers can see that. They engage with the world. And when they see a brand clear, connected, and committed to its purpose, they want it to be better. So just thinking about the next generation of marketer or chief growth officer, like what one piece of advice would you give to people that will occupy your seat in 10 years time? If it's one, I will say curiosity. This is an effort-changing world. We must always be learning. I spend at least two, three hours every week to read, connect, learn with a partner, or simply do a training. So please remain curious, remain open-minded, and have a positive attitude towards things. That will be my advice. That's great. Thank you. Thank you.


Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hello, it's the 16th of February and you're here for another episode of Give the People What They Want with Zoe and myself from People's Dispatch. Vijay is on a reporting trip somewhere in Europe so he'll be joining us next week with fresh updates from the continental movements there and hopefully other parts of the world as a whole. It's been, as usual, a very intense week for all of us covering news, for all of us covering the situation in Palestine, the situation in West Asia as a whole, especially as many of you have read at this point. The big question is what happens in Rafa in the southern part of Gaza where more than a million, maybe closer on 1.3 to 1.4 million Palestinians are in a very, very small part of the larger territory that is Gaza and these 1.3 to 1.4 million, a large part of these people were forced into Rafa because of the brutal Israeli attacks since October 7th. We know that during these attacks the Israelis told the Palestinians time and again that move to the south of the territory because this part will not be safe and now we have a situation where Israel is planning an offensive on Rafa. Now, of course, there's been widespread condemnation of the idea, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, all the aid organizations that you can think of, all of them warning against the kind of attack that is there, the kind of possibility of an offensive on Rafa because of the sheer density of population over there. Now, it does look like there is a very concerted effort on the part of Israel over here to push people out of Rafa. In fact, that has always been, many media reports have indicated that that is really the plan, that you push the Palestinian people out of Palestine because that really completes that agenda of ethnic cleansing that has always been so central to a lot of what Israel has been doing and this is even worried countries like, for instance, Egypt, which is worried about the Palestinians being forced to come into their territory. Egypt has even warned that it will scrap its 1979 peace agreement with Israel over this and despite all these concerns, despite especially the horrible medical, the humanitarian situation in the region, these attacks have continued unabated. We have carried on people's dispatch quite a few reports, especially on the health situation in Gaza. I would encourage you to read those reports which really talk about how horrendous the situation is over the past few days. We have heard of continuous attacks on a Nasr hospital, for instance, in the Khan Yunus region on the Al Amal hospital. Nasr hospitals are the most important medical facilities in Gaza at this point of time. But Israel is in fact Israeli forces have called for the evacuation. They have already evacuated the patients over there of thousands of people who are taking shelter of medical personnel. For instance, you have a medical agency saying that they are not being able to get in touch or access these hospitals at all even for delivery of aid, their staff working in extremely difficult conditions. And in between all this, you have this continuing offensive which has not stopped short and it's very important to of course note that throughout this period Israel's Western allies have been making maybe cautionary noises at most. The United States of course beginning by seeming to take a clear stand on this issue or at least making expressions of concern but its own position is diluted considerably even from that low baseline where it started. So I know now it's talking about making sure that there are not too many casualties as if in all this time that has really been Israel's concern. So a very, very dangerous situation in not only in Gaza but also the fact that across the region it's been escalating. We had attacks in Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrullah delivering two speeches this week where he stopped talking about he's been being cautious in terms of how he's responding but also making it very clear that there is no endless patience as far as 11 is a concern. So a region as a whole very dangerously and delicately poised at this point of time. One can argue that not much, that has been the case for many months now but especially with if the offensive on Rafa takes place the extent of disaster might be very, really difficult to describe and I think it's really a very damning testimony of the fact that despite all this talk about peace, despite all this talk about human rights there's been absolutely no decisive action not even one Security Council, not even one Stern Security Council resolution asking Israel to stop the war. So that's unfortunately where we are with the war on Gaza at this point. Well what's interesting Prashant I think is that actually the threat and really the ongoing attacks on Rafa because we know that there have been airstrikes carried out against the region is that actually a lot of Israel's key allies have actually taken a position in calling Israel to back down to call for a ceasefire, not even saying just the truth. I mean we're hearing Emmanuel Macron of France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada releasing a statement calling for a ceasefire. And it's really because they're seeing the levels of the humanitarian suffering, the catastrophe. I mean there's just countless reports that are just documenting and detailing kind of every level of the suffering and even that doesn't go far enough into understanding what's happening on the ground as you mentioned. But it is interesting because again we see many more voices coming out and condemning Israel, again even close allies. However beginning of this week, no surprise here the US passed its long-awaited funding bill in the Senate which essentially promises to send $14 billion to Israel. And this is of course extremely crazy because not only is Israel sort of threatening this major escalation it's a moment when people are actually taking stock and saying this is too far, four months into the genocide, 30,000 people slaughtered cruelly and the US actually pushes forward by saying we need to arm Israel more, we need to send more aid. And again as we've talked about on the show this is completely in contradiction to the sentiments of the people in the United States. I'm not just talking about the people who are on the streets protesting which is a huge number, but major polls have said that the majority of US adults actually don't support Israel's military campaign they think Israel has gone too far. And again the polls of young people with a more specific age bracket are much higher numbers, but the majority of American voters adult age do not support what's happening. And so we see US Senator Czech Schumer who's actually based in New York pushing this through. He's one of the biggest defenders of Israel. This bill now goes of course to the House of Representatives in the United States, Republican dominated. Many people think it's unlikely to pass because there's pretty strong opposition to sending more aid to Ukraine and that's a major piece of this foreign funding bill. But still the fact you know these all of these actions send a message of saying Israel doesn't matter that you're about to invade a land where there's over a million refugees we're still going to send you military aid. And again despite as you said all of these condemnations from human rights organizations despite even leaders of the global north condemning what's happening calling for a ceasefire the fact that the United States just continues to financially and militarily back and politically and diplomatically which is I think is really crucial back Israel means that it feels like it can go ahead with these genocidal operations this you know extreme violence against the people. So it's really atrocious that the United States is just continuing pushing forward. I think we have seen a little bit of cracks in the Biden administration we've heard kind of these leaked rumors from staffers saying oh Biden's really furious with Netanyahu oh Biden's this Biden's that he's unhappy with what's happening but at the end of the day the their actions and their concrete policies have not changed and we even saw a spokesperson saying that you know Israel they don't they don't plan to punish Israel for any of the crimes that it's going to be that it is carrying out and that it could carry it on Rafa so pretty bleak situation but I think that people continue putting pressure on the Biden administration and it continues to be more and more politically costly for him to blindly back this genocidal regime again election year he's actually significantly losing large swaths of the population over this so I think sooner or later we're going to see this come to a head right through the election year that's something we've talked about often on this show 2024 very vital for a number of countries the United States being one of them but that's much later in the year after a grueling process of primaries where I think many of these questions are definitely going to come up although unfortunately there is definitely considerable unanimity between the Republicans and Democrats on the issue of Israel but nonetheless moving on the going to the other side of the globe so to speak another vital election taking place on the 14th of February and it's interestingly an election that is called this largest single-day election in the world it's in Asia you know which has a very a very important country for multiple reasons one being the fact that it's of course an economy powerhouse it plays a key role in global affairs as a spokesperson for that region as a whole there's a lot of weight it has and this election particularly important because the fact that after two terms incumbent president Jo Kobi or Jo Kobi Dodo was no longer eligible to contest this election although he continues to remain quite popular and so after eight years the field was kind of thrown wide open for a variety of candidates now this has been a curious election first of all of course the results are not out yet officially they'll only come out by the 20th of March if I'm not mistaken but the preliminary results which were also what was anticipated by everybody was that Prabowo Subhiyanto old war horse so to speak of the international political seat would hemorrhage as a winner he's already declared victory right now estimates say that he's getting about 57 to 58% of the votes Prabowo was interestingly Jo Kobi's opponent the incumbent president's opponent for the past two elections which he lost but this time he is contesting with Jo Kobi's son as his vice presidential candidate a very young man and this itself is kind of indicative of the very mixed ideological and political scenario that you know led this elections where Jo Kobi who was traditionally the candidate of what is considered a far more moderate party so to speak switched his support to Prabowo or they moved closer together which has been happening for quite some time now unfortunately Prabowo has a very alarming record in fact he was the son-in-law he is the son-in-law of a former dictator Suharto during his time during whose time innumerable amounts of brutalities took place against activists and left against protestors you know the massive corruption massive violations of human rights and Prabowo was in the thick of many of these violations was directly responsible for them in fact he was dishonorably discharged from the Indonesian army but all these years later he has managed some kind of an imagery habilitation so to speak where he's been sort of into this affectionate at least that's how the media portrays him in many parts this thing in the kind of an affectionate elderly wise old man and there's been very little examination during this campaign of his very brutal record during the Suharto you know and so he looks all set that he is likely to become the next president so we're seeing another leader from that category sort of coming to power although it's definitely going to be complicated like I said Jokowi because of his son will continue to sort of exercise some amount of power in the new structure it's going to be interesting to see how these two while they are together how long what will be the fate of this alliance of former rivals very important to see in the parliamentary elections the what do you call it is not the party which is the moderate one Jokowi's former party has done relatively better so it's a bit unclear of course final results will be out only in March on the 20th of March I believe but this election was one also where I think that there was a considerable amount of consolidation of the ruling class quite a few issues raised by the left quite a few issues raised by the activists including the treatment of labour including workers rights the question there was the omnibus bill which saw some massive protests in previous years which really attacked workers rights issues like that not really coming up so much in the international elections so which activists say tended to be far more personality driven then ideology or issue driven at this time a lot of issues that were raised by leftist and activist sections of society not really making it onto the agenda so in a sense it could be it could be analysed as some kind of a populist victory on this side but remains to be seen where Subhiyanto and the alliance he sort of cobbled together will go in the coming weeks and months as well and we'll of course know the results fully by the 20th of March but very important times the agenda he's going to set forward will be very vital for the entire region as a whole. Well again yeah we love elections here and this year is another vital election that will be taking place in Venezuela a date to be confirmed but could be as early as June however a familiar enemy has come up which is the United States once again cracking down on Venezuela regarding elections criticising Venezuela's democratic process during we know that during the pandemic because of the US's desperation to actually get access to oil following the war in Ukraine it turned to Venezuela it started to recognize in some way not officially but the leadership of Nicolas Maduro is the president of the country and we saw actually a lot of the sanctions that had been in place on Venezuela's oil industry start to loosen and a process began where the US began to recognize some of the diplomatic efforts that Venezuela was leading or some of the kind of reconciliation efforts it was leading with the opposition and through the agreements that took place during the dialogue with the opposition the US in turn started to loosen these sanctions agreements were made about the US having access to Venezuelan oil you know in terms of repairing some of the machinery that they have we know that because of the really heavy sanctions it's actually really hard for Venezuela to even process their own oil and so we saw this loosening up process which in turn of course helped boost the Venezuelan economy it's very positive steps because we know that for almost seven years US had an extremely extremely hostile position towards the United States which began with Obama's declaration of Venezuela as an extraordinary and unusual threat but intensified around the 2015 elections and so once again at the end of January following the Supreme Court ruling that again the Venezuelan candidate Machado was not eligible to participate in the electoral process this year and this is because no less she helped lead essentially coup efforts in the country the violent uprisings against government in 2014 and 2017 very intimately linked to you know this US backed efforts to really overthrow the government which happened at the same time that the US is exerting this maximum pressure campaign on Venezuela's economy and so it had already been clear from the start this person would not be eligible to participate in the democratic process again just given the constant attacks to you know Venezuela's sovereignty it's electoral system it's democracy and so once this ruling came out the Maria Cortina Machado would not be eligible to participate in the elections immediately the Treasury Department said that it would resume the sanctions that had loosened on Venezuela and it gave the deadline of February 13th for US companies to cease doing business with Venezuela and with the first target was the mining company but again the sanctions have continued and essentially this sort of you know silent but soft attitude towards Venezuela and like this out of necessity has now been completely shifted and we're seeing more and more US officials talking about the threats to democracy talking about how this is a rigged electoral process talking about the dictatorship again the same script that we've seen many many times and so it is definitely a tense moment and a tense year for Venezuela because again any time there's an electoral process this comes up there's criticisms of democracy, criticisms of the process and now especially there is you know they're trying this has become a right wing talking point because there's more immigrants actually coming from Venezuela the southern border so that has been worked into this whole right wing and honestly Democratic Party tirade against Venezuela pressures continuing to increase and we're I think it's going to continue to increase around the electoral process what will those sanctions look like by then unclear but but Venezuela is once again in sort of the eye of US Empire and it's of course a plan to save democracy across the world right the plan to save democracy of course an unending plan stretching decades that is sort of you know I think by this point they're just drinking their own kool-aid so this is a give the people what they want we come to you every Friday you can also listen to us as a broadcast you bring you news from around the world news of struggles news of elections like Zoe pointed out news of I think developments that often sometimes don't really feature so much in the headlines and one of them is probably a particular incident that took place today that is in India that is the Grameen Band that is a rural shutdown so to speak probably not at all going to be reported in by most media across the world and this was rural band was conducted by farmers and workers rural shutdown was conducted by farmers and workers organizations across the country on a series of demands now also important note that there is also an ongoing farmers protest in the state of Punjab or rather the border between the states of Punjab and Haryana those farmers also presenting very similar demands as the protesters in other parts of the country today and I think to understand it we need to sort of take a look take maybe a deeper look at the agricultural condition in the country right now India also important because we're going to also going for elections and maybe I think in a month and a half probably we're going to see the first hour first hour of elections taking place but the agricultural scenario is not you know the product of one round of elections or it's not an issue that has just started right now we're talking about a decades long process whereby agriculture has become increasingly unprofitable various reforms introduced by successive governments have attacked the foundations of agriculture production itself making it increasingly unprofitable and with very low remuneration for farmers across the country many many farmers hundreds and thousands of farmers have been pushed unfortunately into suicides I think the number is just 400,000 or something in the last 10 years or so so we're looking at you know a massive agrarian crisis a huge amount of people leaving their farm lands their agricultural pursuits coming to the city forced to take very jobs that pay very menially so it's also not just a crisis that of the rural sector it's also a crisis that extends into the urban sector as well so all this despite all this or in the face of all these farmers organizations across the country have made a very series of very clear demands to governments over time to this government one of the key demands being the question of what is called the minimum support price they want a sustainable minimum support price the minimum support price is the price at which the government procures crops from farmers the government the Indian government does by you know considerable amounts of crops what are you called specially paddy from farmers or the products also so they have asked for an expansion of that minimum support price and increase in that price so that agriculture becomes far more profitable and sustainable for them and this was one of the key demands that also was very central to the very historic farmers protests of two years ago many of you must have remembered those visuals that those protests were also against the farm laws which the government was forced to withdraw but at that time the government had said that they would set up a committee to consider this minimum support price but as you can expect that never really materialized so once again we have farmers from the state of Punjab especially moving towards the national capital Delhi where much before they reached massive barricades were set up there has been an incident of tear gas being fired at the protesters today huge barricades have come up in many places restrictions and protests drones have been deployed to fire tear gas as well so you know definitely not a positive attitude towards farmers who are asking for very basic and clear demands these demands like I said have been ongoing for many many years they have many other demands as well but I think the MSP itself is a very central demand which is not which the government promised to consider and now all this time later has still not positively considered it's important to also remember that today's what you call shutdown for instance is not a one-off it's a result of a process that has been happening for many months farmers and workers have been conducting meetings and rallies across the country they have been successive rounds of mobilizations pressing that demand making sure that that demand is very central to you know the kind of pressure they're applying to the government and all this is one of those things we talk about it's one of those processes of our time it's not an event it's not just one protest that we see today or one protest in November or whatever it's a process of many many years which the farmers workers those who are really not reported so much by the media have been continuously pushing so a very important story to watch out for especially as India heads towards the elections well to close us off I think I'll talk about another story which we have been following again for the past couple of years which is Ecuador the situation in Ecuador the sort of institutional breakdown and this week the government of Daniel Nowoa ratified the military cooperation agreements with the United States and so you might read that headline and say wow how did they get there what led to this clearly setback for its autonomy for its sovereignty and it's as we have been covering it is the series it is the result of many different policies that have been taken forward by prior governments sort of the whittling way of the state infrastructure and today we see the situation which we spoke about in January where this kind of outbreak of gang violence of criminal violence sort of erupted we saw these extremely graphic and intense scenes of of a gang sort of storming the headquarters of the station while they're broadcasting live on air we know that there was several massacres that took place in the prisons and this sort of intense state of commotion shaking Ecuador and you know this again is the result of many years of the deterioration of the state of the involvement of key sectors of the ruling class in benefiting from drug trafficking that goes through Ecuador again Ecuador is perfectly positioned to be part of the drug trade it's between the two largest cocaine producers Colombia and Peru so the reactivation the kind of opening for these gangs to kind of take hold in the country with this whittling down of institutions even under neoliberal governments of Guillermo Lasso and Lenin Moreno even the security institutions took hits so even their budget was reduced their personnel was reduced so there's openings for these kind of groups to take hold the demobilization of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on the northern border of Ecuador again opened up this zone for another group to sort of assert its dominance all of these factors led to this outburst that we saw in January if you've been following Ecuador, the prison riots the prison massacres have been happening for the past several years horrific violence, hundreds of people have been killed in these prisons, the prisons are essentially were essentially under control completely of the gangs in the country and this again came to its most intense expression when they literally took control and had prison guards hostage and so in response to this commotion, Daniel Novoa declares all of these groups as terrorist organizations and begins this intense militarization of the country and crackdown on violent crime in the country since in the 37 days of what he's declared the internal armed conflict over a thousand people have been detained have been put in prison and at the same time he said anyone who wants to help us secure the country is welcome and who do you think jumped at that opportunity United States and so this had already been taking place Laura Richardson the famous chief of the southern command of the U.S. Army who just a year ago was saying on television open for everyone that Latin America was important because of the natural resources that are there so again the chief of the southern command who just a year ago was saying Latin America is important because of its resources one year later she's signing military cooperation or these military cooperation agreements are getting ratified she was in the country in January and I think it's important to point out just a couple of elements of these agreements on one hand there's going to be joint operations between the Ecuadorian Army and the U.S. Army so they have essentially license to take part in seizing ships any sort of criminal activity that's happening out in the water there's also aerial interception cooperation on the ground and this is I think perhaps the most important point is that there's a status of the armed forces to essentially have exceptions to these military privileges they're allowed to be carrying their weapons and being dressed in U.S. military gear in the country they're allowed to partake in all sorts of privileges different tourist activities so essentially this is a huge threat again for Ecuador we've seen when the doors are open to U.S. troops military bases to integrate with their armed forces nothing good comes of it there's so many cases across Latin America itself of horrible crimes that have taken place by U.S. personnel in other countries Rafael Correa had actually kicked U.S. troops out of the country so this is a huge step back something we definitely need to follow there's a lot less for a minute they're not too preoccupied in Palestine they're able to support a genocide and continue to try to control Latin America so we're keeping our eyes on Ecuador of course keeping our eyes on Gaza you can check out all of our reporting on peoplesdispatch.org and on our social media platforms like the video share it thanks for watching today for your movement driven news and a perspective you won't get from the mainstream media


We were not wealthy family. We were actually poor in a sense because my dad was a full-time pastor. My first job was a newspaper and my journey with God started sewing my $100 into him. That's all I had at that time. And so it was in the service where the pastor shared a message and I gave him a $100. That changed my life and moved forward 12 years later. Holy Spirit encountered me very powerfully and reminded me of that $100 that I invested. I didn't waste it. You guys need to understand you don't waste anything what you saw in God's kingdom. Three months later, I closed on the deal. That took about a year and a half project. And then after I completed and finished, there was a $1 million profit from that project. And then he revealed to me one truth is he said, Peter, I wanna know how much I can test you.


There is only one employee for every four job openings in the current job market according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. To help fill some of those much needed positions, the Brainerd Community Job Fair took place today at Central Lakes College. Sarah Winkleman was on campus for the event and has more. It's going good. I've got a few cards, gave out a few resumes. It was a day full of success for not only job seekers, but also for many local employers. We've had some people who are interested and, you know, it's been great talking to them and hopefully we can move forward and hire a couple. For local resorts like Madden's, the fair comes at a perfect time as they will open for the season in the coming weeks. It includes things like recreation, marina, housekeeping, kitchen, dining room, golf course, you name it, we have it open. With over 50 local employers, job seekers were able to get a glimpse at a variety of careers. Healthcare, long-term care, banking, business, retail, resorts, manufacturing, you name it, we have employers here. There's so many good jobs out here, I was very surprised, pleasantly surprised. Who are ready to talk about positions currently available. I've been searching for a job since late January and, you know, what you see advertised isn't always what people have. In a time of online applications, the job fair is a far more personal experience. That face-to-face talking to a person from that company gives you that feeling that, yeah, this is someplace I'd like to work and it gives the employer the idea of, yeah, that's someone I'd like to have working for me. It's really neat to have everybody here together to be able to share your experiences and see what's available. Four community members to explore jobs that are in high demand in the region. For me, just drop my son off at daycare and I show up to the CLC and I get to see all these people who have jobs available. Good jobs, too. And in a time of need for employers, the job fair was full of eager community members ready to get the job done. Reporting in Brainerd, Sarah Winkleman, Lakeland News. The rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program plans to hold the annual spring event again next year.