Bradford aim to continue where they left off at the weekend here as late penalty drama against Oldham created an electric atmosphere sending the home fans crazy that success and their managers unquestionable promotion pedigree means this will be one of the hardest places to come to in league 2 this season Stephen H fear no one though they've made the perfect start two maximums without conceiving excellent form to suggest they could be a real fourth tier force in the coming months since the optimism and confidence around the ground start impressively here with Burnham right hole with the floated ball and there's in the first minute they break the dadlock and it's the front man and he caught a permanent signing in the summer goals in the second half of last season and they have continued where they left off at the weekend a simple goal a clinical header Bradford City one Stephen H. Nail Rick Adams has led every team he's managed to promotion very happy with his team the way they open this contest but Stephen H. have great form of their own Luke Norris there with the header but nothing to worry about for Richard O'Donnell in the band sims goal 14th last season Stephen H. their eighth consecutive season in league 2 Borra did win their first two games of the AFL season for the first time to do some defending here two goal man from Saturday Lee Angle nearly found the angle almost catching Joseph and then hold at his near post there that was very good working from the right-hand side hit it with pace not far away from Lee Angle what can Borra do here Port Val and Walsall to come next for them in the league this looks worrying for Bradford and there's the equaliser it's Elliott List their main marksman last term gets on the mark in West Yorkshire hopeful ball floated over the knockdown there may have been a little touch towards him in the middle as well and list sweeps it gleefully home game on one one well it's been a terrific contest between two very good sides so far here come the hosts again she's wide Vernon was waiting to try and get the touch would surely have been a scoring one but it's attack after attack it's gripping pulsating fair Bradford ended last season so poorly they needed a change they've made one and they started in ominous fashion for the rest of the league always going wide from Angle good knockdown towards him Bradford unbeaten the last four league meetings with Steven itch here come Borra trying to get themselves ahead O'Donnell cast it again Elliott List has been lively so far for the visitors to their winners at Bristol Rovers on Saturday with two late goals here come the home side again Vernon has been outstanding he goes down on the referee immediately blows his whistle and points to the spot Vernon has really been in the mood tonight getting a star making an impact drawing the challenge angle was successful on Saturday but not in midway it's a very good save from Joseph Hanang who's a fine keeper and he showed his shot stopping prowess there frustration for Angle would have taken short for Vernon Vernon floats one over and here's Cook left-footed volley low and true and Bradford retake the lead it's two for Andy Cook they caught them unawares there with the quickly taken corner short Vernon stood it up and that's a brilliant piece of finishing from Andy Cook he's having a fabulous evening that was a very good raking ball Cousin Dawson Cook sets off in pursuit and he might just get there he has got their cook with a chip 3-1 a hat trick for Andy Cook and it's a perfect one at that one with his head one with his left and then the cleverest of finishes with his right foot we'll be getting the match ball later got the better of a hesitant rear guard he still have plenty to do and that was very subtle very clever he might not be about that the top scorer in lead to this season the way started it well it's been a brilliant first half from Bradford boy and bristling with energy and Hurnham attempts to get the fourth goal and he wasn't a million miles away he's caught the eye there's Vernon in this first half they've had no answer to his constant probing cook hoping to add to his tally in the second period it's with Gilead well Callum cook that getting on the axe so often when you have a first half like that the second can be an anti-climax but will be enough it's been a statement performance from Bradford so far that's a good save again from Anang it might have been more convincing scoreline if it hadn't been for him with the penalty they've thrown in as well Cook's been superb leader of the line still hungry for more cook and Bradford not giving Stevenage and Terence Van Couten a moment's peace it's a nicely clipped corner only partially cleared space here for Oliver Crankshaw the sub oh that's brilliant play from him and his canavan to make it for one the captain with a towering header that was hugely impressive from the replacement as well Crankshaw had some space he exploited it didn't rush his cross and canavan met it the jubilation of the home fans behind the goal they have a three-goal cushion now and that rounds off the evening very nicely indeed for Bradford City Stevenage you've kept going but it's all over Bradford have won this game the very thorough emphatic performance no doubt about the hero Andy Cook with a tremendous travel canavan got the fourth Bradford City for Stevenage won


In this lecture, we're going to be talking about the years that followed 1989, the two decades that follow, and we're going to focus on this as, in many ways, a conversation about many of the economic and political and social policies that were put in place during the decade of the 1980s under Ronald Reagan, and that continued to be part of the conversation that continues in the two decades that follow. So that's why I've turned this lecture, the Reagan legacy, because the conversation that begins during the 1980s continues to be very influential within American politics, American society, and the American economy in the two decades that follow. In this lecture, we're going to talk about the presidencies of George H. W. Bush, who follows Ronald Reagan, talk about the presidency of Bill Clinton, the presidency of George W. Bush, and then briefly about the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008, and sort of the broader, sort of sum up with the broader impact of the last, of the policies of really the last 70 years or so on America's relationship with the broader global community. Reagan's legacy, certainly we have to talk about, and we mentioned this in the previous lecture, there are a number of conversations, there are a number of sort of political and economic ideas that he and his supporters really promote that continue to be a part of the conversation long after Reagan leaves office. One of these is his critique of big government. This idea that government was too big, it needed to be smaller, taxes were too high, they needed to be lower, the government shouldn't be everything to everyone. And so in the two decades that follow Reagan's time in office, the issues of tax cuts, big government as I already mentioned, here, and kind of pro-business government policies become very, very important, become something that almost pretty much every politician is engaged with, either agreeing with these or disagreeing with these. During Reagan's time in office, we begin to see a transformation of the New Deal state. In other words, the welfare state, as some people kind of derisively call it, and this continues certainly under the administrations of the presidents that follow Ronald Reagan, this concern about welfare, concern about government spending on things like education and social issues, this becomes a major source of conversation within American politics and society. The last issue which Reagan had said was certainly one of the negatives, one of the things he was least happy about with his presidency was the issue of the national debt. And this again becomes an issue of great conversation in the United States in the two decades that follow his time in office. So really these main issues that I've just marked down and highlighted here, big government tax cuts, should government be pro-business or not, in other words regulate business or not, what was the role of the New Deal state of the welfare state, quote unquote, and the national debt, what was the role of the national debt within American politics and the American economy. All these are legacies that come about as sort of conversations as things to be discussed during Reagan's administration continue to be major points of discussion in the two decades that follow and we'll touch on all these in our lecture today. Well, Reagan leaves office in 1989 and his vice president George H.W. Bush sort of rides Reagan's coattails into office. In some ways, you could almost argue that Bush's presidency is very much a continuation of Reagan's presidency. Bush certainly has some independent ideas, but by and large a lot of the policies that he promoted, a lot of the things that happened during his presidency were direct outcomes of Ronald Reagan's eight years in office. Bush is elected in 1988, he takes office in January of 1989 and his first year in office is this one of monumental change around the world. It's really truly a year of change. 1989 is up there with years like 1917 when the Russian Revolution happens or for instance 1789 when the French Revolution happens or even 1776 when the American Revolution as a truly, truly revolutionary year in world history. In 1989, we see a number of important things happen. Beginning in the spring, pro-democracy demonstrations begin to break out throughout Eastern Europe and these communist states that have been under very, very tight communist control since the end of World War II in places like Eastern Europe and East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland begin to see increasing demonstrations in terms of pro-democracy taking place. In China, Chinese students and others gather in Tiananmen Square and protest against the kind of authoritarian policies of the Chinese communist state that happens between April and June. In Tiananmen Square, of course, the protests are eventually crushed by the Chinese military and many of the people are killed or are arrested and driven or in some cases just driven off. But in Eastern Europe, the protests continue until finally in November, the states begin to respond. In November of 1989, the eastern half of Germany, East Germany protests continue, some of East Germany's neighbors eventually just say that they're not going to restrict passage of East Germans between the East and the West and suddenly in a way sort of the wall start coming down that the iron curtain had put into place in the 1940s because of Stalin and other communist policies and suddenly Eastern Europe's looking a lot less like the iron curtain and suddenly looking like it's more open. And so finally on November 9th of 1989, when the East German officials announced they will no longer restrict passage between East Berlin and West Berlin and since the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down and this monumental change, it's hard to under emphasize how important that is because suddenly this kind of powerful two-party system worldwide, in other words, capitalism versus communism starts developing major cracks and within the span of less than two years, this kind of powerful monumental force of communism collapses in Eastern Europe and collapses in the Soviet Union and the Cold War that had been going on since the late 1940s suddenly ends and the U.S. is the only power left standing in a sense the only superpower left standing as a result of this. So 1989 was when the first major cracks begin to appear, quite literally the cracks begin to appear in the Berlin Wall. Within less than a year, communist governments begin to collapse throughout Eastern Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary. We begin to see the Soviet Union itself or the Soviet Russia itself developing kind of cracks in a way. In 1991, the communist government collapses in Russia after an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the head of the Russian state. Ultimately, a democratic election takes place. Boris Yeltsin here is elected as the new president of a now non-communist state of Russia and all these other affiliated states in Western Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan and so forth become independent states. And ultimately, it represents this dramatic dramatic change after the 60s, almost 70 years of Cold War. And in the case of the Soviet Union, since 1917, essentially the communists had been in control of the government. So it's just a dramatic dramatic period of a couple years when you see these massive changes taking place. It's not the only change that takes place. We also see the end, for instance, in 1990, Nelson Mandela, a freedom fighter in South Africa, is released from prison after serving many years for his revolutionary activities against the apartheid state in South Africa. Four years later, he's elected president of South Africa and helps oversee the end of the apartheid regime, this racially segregated regime that confined black Africans to these impoverished townships that had privileged white people living in South Africa. And again, it's a monumental shift that takes place in this nation. We also see changes taking place in Latin and South America. Many of these military governments that had taken control in the 70s and early 80s accept democracy and they allow free elections to take place. And we have democratically elected officials taking over in nations like Chile, Brazil, Argentina, places like Nicaragua. And it's just a dramatic, dramatic boost for democracy in these few short years of the early 1990s. Now, of course, change doesn't happen without conflict. And in 1990, 1991, the US, for really the first time since the Vietnam War, becomes involved in a major military conflict overseas. And the so-called Gulf War of 1990, 1991. And really the first major post-Cold War military crisis that the United States would face. Of course, this war came about mainly out of US interest in maintaining a supply of oil coming out of the Middle East when Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, invaded his neighbor of Kuwait, which had a huge amount of oil reserved. And it also put Saudi Arabia with its huge oil reserves under threat. And the United States responds by going before the United Nations and organizing a United Nations effort to defend Saudi Arabia and ultimately to order Saddam Hussein to leave Kuwait. And this takes place as part of two efforts organized by the United States, the initial effort to defend Saudi Arabia known as Desert Shield. And then the war against Iraq, Ghee troops in Kuwait that then becomes known as Desert Storm. And for the United States, it's almost the perfect war in a way. It's a war that really helps dispel many of the anxieties that had followed Vietnam, this Vietnam syndrome that I talked about in a previous lecture, this idea that the US should never commit itself to military conflict overseas because it would end badly. Well, in Desert Storm, this literally 100-hour war, last barely 100 hours, the advanced US military troops or military equipment and military troops with very good training and our allies in Great Britain and elsewhere in the Middle East launched this lightning-fast strike that isolates Kuwait and ultimately utterly destroys and defeats the Iraqi occupation troops in Kuwait. And the US, it chooses to stop the war at that point and not continue into Iraq as many advocated. And it really does, as the war wraps up very quickly in the spring of 2001, reposits this huge dramatic victory and kind of morale boost for the United States that American troops had gone in, had done their job at Clean House and had very quickly ended a military threat overseas. Now, had the election taken place right after the end of the Gulf War, it's almost certain that George H. W. Bush would have won re-election. But unfortunately, after the end of the Gulf War, the US enters a period of economic recession. And this kind of short, painful economic recession really hurts Bush's re-election efforts. Bush is not very successful at sort of responding to this economic crisis. And as a result of 1992, when the presidential election does take place, his opponent, William Jefferson Clinton, better known as Bill Clinton, is very successful on capitalizing on Bush's kind of inability to deal with the economy. One of Clinton's catchphrases that becomes very popular in the election is that it's the economy stupid. In other words, he says, Bush is ignoring the economy and that's what's hurting the United States. So in the election of 92, Bill Clinton runs against George Bush. The wild card in this race is that there's an independent, independent businessman, Ross Perot, who runs his kind of a conservative businessman, runs as an independent, very wealthy, so he finances his own campaign. Well, Perot hurts Bush's re-election efforts because he really kind of splits off enough conservative voters that it helps give Clinton the edge. Clinton campaigns is sort of a very different Democrat than previous Democrats, the last Democrat in office being Jimmy Carter. Clinton campaigns as a more moderate Democrat and argues that he's economically conservative, that he in fact agrees in some cases with a lot of the Republican economic policies that had been sort of initiated under Ronald Reagan, but at the same time he was socially liberal, that he believed in a welfare state, he believed in liberal social policies and liberal government policies. Well, he does a very good job of painting George H.W. Bush's being out of touch with the average Americans, and as a result he wins the election in 1992. And again, first Democratic president to be elected in more than a decade in 12 years. Clinton serves two terms in office. His first term is far more liberal than his second term. Early on in his first term, Clinton pushes for universal healthcare, the idea that the government should provide universal healthcare from birth until death and this becomes a huge political debate in the United States. Ultimately, Clinton's universal healthcare effort fails. Clinton's also involved in efforts to initiate an assault weapons ban. The Democrats in Congress pass it, Clinton signs it, and this becomes a hugely controversial measure among conservatives in the United States. On the other hand, Clinton does push some fairly moderate economic policies. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Association, which is actually very popular among businesses, Clinton promotes as part of his sort of economic conservative strategy. But ultimately, in his first few years in office as a result of the universal healthcare efforts, the assault weapons ban efforts, there's an increasing sense of frustration among very conservative Republicans against Clinton's presidency. And as a result in the midterm election in 94, the Republicans, led by people like Newt Gingrich with his contract with America, managed to take over the House and Senate and it's a huge repudiation of the Democrats and of really Democrats and Bill Clinton's policies.  Although he actually is arguably very successful governing with a Republican House and Senate, in many cases probably some of his most significant achievements as president in terms of legislative success is really do happen during the six years that the Republicans are in control of the House and the Senate. Well, Clinton is successful enough that he manages to engineer a reelection. The economy, which had struggled a little bit during his first term in office rebounds, he kind of is successful at painting these Republicans in Congress as being really radical and he argues that he's a much more conservative moderating influence and he's able to win successful reelection despite kind of a rough first term in office. During his second term, he does indeed become more moderate, more conservative in his political ambitions, argues for more in terms of small government, argues for fiscal responsibility that the U.S. has to reduce its national debt and U.S. needs to do more to run a budget surplus, in other words to not run a deficit every year. In 1996, Clinton is very successful working with Congress to pass a very significant Welfare Reform Act, which abolishes a number of great society-era programs including the Aid to Family with Defended Children, which was a sort of a food stamps-like program for young mothers with children. It also changes how welfare organizations are running rather than the federal government giving welfare directly to citizens. Federal government would issue block grants to states and states could administer those welfare block grants however they chose to. So it really was gonna devolving power from the federal government to the state level. It's also during his second term that Clinton deals with the crisis in Somalia, where the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, where U.S. troops are stationed there and then eventually pulled out following kind of the events that are depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down, where troops are killed, and also in Yugoslavia, the humanitarian crisis in Yugoslavia that the United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization becomes involved with dealing with the crisis in Bosnia during this era. And so many respects as Clinton's second term in office is quite a very event-filled term. Of course, probably the most notorious aspect of his time in office is his last couple of years in office when the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks, the sex scandal that he's involved in, and then ultimately leads to the U.S. Congress initiating an impeachment hearing against him and attempting to essentially impeach Clinton from office, which of course is not successful, but it does harm kind of his last year and a half or so in office because he begins to sort of really a lot of Americans, many Americans, of course, are frustrated with this. They see the impeachment effort as sort of politically motivated, but at the same time, it sort of leads to certain dissatisfaction with Clinton's kind of influence, his personal life influencing his policy and his political decisions. And it's partly as a result of sort of dissatisfaction with Clinton's sort of personal failings that the 2000 election becomes a very, very tight election between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton's vice president, Al Gore. The elections themselves, of course, are very, very tight and they ultimately hinge on the state of Florida where the vote count is really disputed. Ultimately, the decision has to go, the decision on how the votes in Florida are to be counted goes up to the U.S. Supreme Court, who makes a very controversial ruling along largely conservative liberal lines and hand Bush the election as president. And Bush comes into office in many cases, as I said, sort of arguing in some ways against sort of the social attitudes of Bill Clinton. Bush comes into office arguing very strongly as sort of a social conservative as a Christian, painting Bill Clinton and his supporters as kind of perhaps immoral or at least amoral. He argues very strongly in terms of sort of being a domestic president. He wants to focus mostly on domestic affairs, which is sort of where he's seen as being a strong point and arguing for things like tax cuts for the middle and upper classes, continuing these sort of Reagan era policies of deregulation that are also in some ways continued under the Clinton presidency and argue ultimately in sort of incoming into office, Bush arguing for very sort of this kind of conservative small government approach to American politics and American society. Well, when he is elected in 2000, he does indeed implement a number of these programs, including his tax relief policies, the so-called Bush era tax cuts that ultimately lower middle and upper class tax is quite significantly. His no child left behind policy that really changes how educational funding is administered and how educational policy is administered by the Department of Education. But shortly into the Bush presidency, we have September 11th and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And this really does kind of change the focus of the Bush presidency to being one of international policies as much as it is a matter of domestic policies. It really initiates a number of important events. And internationally, we enter the so-called war on terrorism period. Domestically, we have things like the Patriot Act that are passed that many people see as very as sort of government creating in some ways a police state or at least attempting to restrict privacy in some cases for many Americans. We eventually end up being in two military wars, the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban who were supporting Osama bin Laden and then ultimately the war in Iraq against Saddam Hussein based on the argument that he had weapons of mass destruction, which are, of course, never located. So ultimately for the Bush presidency, which starts off intending to be mainly focused on domestic issues, it becomes largely focused on these international military conflicts, which become extremely costly for the United States because the Bush tax cut significantly reduces revenue for the government. At the end of the Clinton years, there had actually been a slight surplus in the American, in the budget and as a result of Bush era tax cuts and then these two major wars, the deficit starts climbing just exponentially and then towards the end of Bush's presidency beginning in December of 2007, the world economy begins to slow down, which ultimately starts to contribute to a massive, massive increase by the end of 2008 in the U.S. national debt and starts climbing into the multiple trillions of dollars. Here we have 200 billion, or 2,000 billion, which is actually two trillion dollars and so by the end of 2009, the national debt has grown to about 1.8 trillion dollars, which is just an unbelievable figure. And of course the economic crisis that begins in 2007, December of 2007 and continues well through the 2009, 2010, we begin to see here, we can look at this as international trade and all of a sudden you can see here, during 2008, there's just a massive collapse in international trade reflecting this broader economic crisis. This is of course the crisis that also brings about the collapse of a number of Wall Street banks, forces the U.S. government to be involved in bailing out a number of other U.S. businesses in order to prevent arguably what's seen as the entire collapse of the U.S. and perhaps even the world economic system. And so it's ultimately, as a result, by the fall of 2008, many American voters had turned increasingly against Bush's actions and office, his policies, this economic crisis that many saw as partly being, you know, attributable to some of his policies. And as a result, we see a great shift in voter support against Republicans and in favor of a Democrat, in this case, President Barack Obama who wins the election of 2008 and takes office in the spring and January of 2009. And in many ways has to deal with the legacy of the Bush era, much as Ronald Reagan had to deal with the legacy of the Carter era and office, Barack Obama has to deal with many of the legacies of the Bush era, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the economic crisis, the so-called great recession and a number of other actions. And so ultimately for him dealing with this legacy, but at the same time, going back to what I said at the very beginning of the lecture, also looking at it in terms that were largely framed by Ronald Reagan, this conversation about small government versus big government, this conversation about whether government should exist to provide a handout or provide social support for people or whether government should largely let people do things on their own, conversation about taxes, conversation about debt, these are all matters that Obama inherits and are all conversations that become a part of his administration be it getting in 2009. In conclusion, I wanna wrap up by addressing kind of an issue that really touches on the last really seven or eight lectures in this series. And this ultimately comes down to the question that was originally framed, or kind of a statement that was originally framed by an American publisher named Henry Luce in 1941, right before the United States becomes involved in World War II. Henry Luce published Time Magazine, was involved in Life Magazine as well, and he predicted in 1941 that the 20th century would be the American century. This would be the century where the United States would emerge as the most powerful, most influential nation on the face of the earth, predicted that America would become a dominant world power politically and militarily. He argued that America would achieve a sense of cultural hegemony, remember hegemony means kind of influence and control because it would be the center of manufacturing, it would make the products that people around the world would want to buy, and ultimately predicted that America would establish itself as a great, as this would be America's moment in the sun, this would be its great century. And so the question kind of is, well, did we really achieve that? It was indeed the 20th century, or the second half of the 20th century America's century, will America's century continue or not? Certainly, if we look at the decades that follow World War II, America was extremely successful at exporting its powerful economic, political, and social ideas to the rest of the world. American businesses became incredibly powerful after World War II, American military became incredibly powerful after World War II, and American culture became incredibly influential after the war. Let's compare, if we look at before World War II, in 1900 the United States overtook Great Britain in terms of being the world's largest manufacturer. And the U.S. had begun to slowly start exporting cultural products, things like movies, consumer goods, American lifestyle choices. But by and large, the U.S. was fairly limited in its kind of cultural influences. America was isolationist. It didn't want to be a part of the world community. The Great Depression also helped limit America's kind of broader international involvement. And of course, the U.S. government itself was largely indifferent to sort of how America was perceived on the world stage and was much more focused on domestic issues. After World War II, however, the entire world economy, and in many ways the entire kind of Western non-communist society, becomes reoriented around the U.S. and its desires or its decisions. And a lot of that has to do with political matters, of course. We talked about Bretton Woods, how all the Western currencies were based on the U.S. dollar. In other words, when the dollar became sort of the de facto world currency and all the other currencies were pegged based against the dollar, the U.S. government set up a number of organizations, including of course the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, all organizations strongly influenced by the United States to deal with international economic matters and international kind of political and diplomatic matters. During the course of fighting in Europe and Asia during World War II, many American products followed the troops. Coca-Cola, Marlboro cigarettes, all sorts of American-made products were supplied to troops in the field and of course many of those products made their way to civilian populations. So people in Europe developed interest in drinking Coca-Cola and smoking Marlboro cigarettes. Asia as well. And as a result, by the end of the war, the U.S. had become both powerful economically, had become very much in charge of the world economy, had become very influential in terms of cultural things, in terms of food products and other things like that. And as a result, became very influential within world society as being the country that not only controlled the world economy, but also produced the things that the world wanted to buy. Following World War II, America was also of course very involved in development policy as well. We were helping rebuild nations that had been destroyed during the war and in some cases for countries that had been colonies and that gained their independence, we were involved in helping to build those countries up as well. So in a way, the U.S. had been instrumental in rebuilding the Western world economy and the Asian economies following the Second World War. Beyond the 1970s though, we began to see some contradictions develop and this is really the era that we're in now. In that, as we've talked about, beyond 1970 the U.S. economy begins to decline. The U.S. role in role trade begins to decline. The U.S. becomes a net importer as opposed to a net exporter of products. So as the U.S. becomes less influential economically, in a sense, on the world stage, at the same time, ironically, U.S. culture becomes far more influential. American products become highly in demand worldwide. Things as simple as Coca-Cola, Levi's jeans, American companies like McDonald's or The Gap that you can go around the world and find all of these things and it's because people around the world want them and they want these American products. They want to identify with America and they want to identify with American lifestyle and American personality and things like that. So ironically, as the U.S. becomes less, perhaps influential, it's certainly less able to exert power economically on the world stage. At the same time, American culture remains very strong and remains very hegemonic overall world culture. English remains a very powerful language on the world scene, especially in business. And so in a way, as America's kind of hard power, in other words, it's economic, political, military power declines in the 21st century. At the same time, our soft power, our products, our movies, our books, our ideas, continue to be very powerful in the world community. And so it really raises this sense of like what exactly will the 21st century bring for the United States? Will America continue to have a great deal of soft power in terms of cultural products and cultural hegemony as its economic power declines? Or will America's cultural hegemony begin to slip as well as new nations, powerful new economies like China and India, begin to increasingly export their cultural products in addition to exporting their commercial products. The basic things that we import in the United States from China and India and other countries on a daily basis. So coming back to the initial question, the American century was the 20th century or the second half of the 20th century, America's century? Well, arguably, yes. It arguably was a time period in which America was the most dominant, the most influential country in the world community. Will the 21st century continue to be America's century? That question is largely open to interpretation. I would hesitate to make an argument, but certainly I think it's fair to say that America's cultural influence on the world community will be strong for the near future, whether its economic influence continues is very much an open question. So with that, I'm gonna wrap up this series of lectures in order to sort of talk about the history of the United States from the Civil War era to the present day.


Hello friends! How are we doing today? We're going to be seeing how many of my 2023 TBR I have actually read. I know all very excited for this. You guys seem to love these videos where I react to past TBRs that I've made. God knows why. Don't stop, Marie. There. I've had it. Enough. You know what they- You guys keep making me make these videos reacting to what I've- have I read these books? When we could just- I could make the TBRs and then we could just exist in peacefulness and you know, just not knowing, you know. It could be oblivious, but um, you guys really like the videos where I react to seeing how much I've read. So I'm gonna do it. We're gonna be reacting to the 23 books I said I had to read in 2023. Listen, I always say at the beginning of these TBRs, oh I'm gonna read all these books. I'm sure I said that at the start of this video. I am making this list this year with like a determination that I'm going to read all these books. I promise. But to be honest, when I get to this point, like a year on from making the TBR, my goal is usually to have read at least half, right?  It is what it is. I am feeling pretty positive about this list actually. Sometimes I go into these feeling really not good, like I'm pretty sure my 24 books I got before I turned 24, which is at the end of January, um, I don't think that list has gone very well from what I can remember. But from what I can remember on this list, I feel like I've read a lot of the books on it. So should I just get into it, see how many of my 2023 TBR? I'm, I think I'll have read at least half this one. Watch me have read seven, because I can just remember seven I've read and none of the rest are on there. But we shall see. Okay. The first category is by far our biggest one. And that is 2023 releases. So I was thinking strategically. That's good. Because I, yeah, I want to read more 20. I think I'll keep that strategy this year. Read new releases in a year. That's something I really want to focus on. This is some of the new releases that I am most excited for. So two I already have my grabby little paws on. The first is the mysterious case of the Alpeton Angels by Janice Hallett. I am so honored. I read it. I read the mysterious case The Alpeton Angels by Janice Hallett. I, that was one of the first books I read this year. I read that in January. It was five stars Janice Hallett. My girly. Yeah, I love the mysterious case of Alpeton Angels. It's all mixed media. And it's about this baby who went missing from this cult where there was like a mass death in this cult. And I really enjoyed it. I think Janice Hallett's books are so much fun. So yeah, that was one I took that off early in the year. Megan, I think this, this strategy of having picked 2023 releases is really going to pay off. And then I also had to put on the list Hellbent by Luba Duga. I am so jealous of everyone who is reading this.  I think I read that. Was that my 100th book of the year? Hellbent? It took you a while. God, I didn't realize I had that in the start of the year. I enjoyed Hellbent. I didn't love it as much as 9000. Hellbent was like a four star for me. But I did enjoy it. And I do like this series a lot. I'm sad it's only going to be a trilogy. Oh guys, 9000. The series was supposed to be like a seven book series. And then she changed it to a trilogy. And I've never, I've never gotten rid of that grudge. It's like there's a grudge that's lingering. I'm not one of those people that forgive and forget.  My dad, it's like one of his favorite books of the year. He says it's like a five star plus to him. So whenever we talk about it, he gets really upset with me that I did not give it a five star. It's an ongoing grudge in our relationship. So he loves it.  So that's how I pray is coming from him. How long can we go with me having read every book? So number three is Yellow Face by R.F. Kwong. I'm so excited. I'm a genius. Megan, you did well with this list. Oh my god. Yes, I've read Yellow Face. What if we got way favorite them all? I don't think I've read them all. But like, what if I read them all? I have read Yellow Face. I again, this was like a strong four star for me. I really, really enjoyed it. I have Kwong just has a way with writing and you know, this was obviously her first non fantasy. And it's just very interesting seeing how her writing style changes but also stays the same across different genres. And I think one of her next books is kind of a fantasy romance kind of deal. I'm not sure that's the next one. I don't know.  R.F. Kwong, your mind. Also we've out of the three have two Goodreads winners. Yes, I'm still thinking about Goodreads winners. Don't talk to me. I knew what we're going to be the most hyped releases of 2023 from this moment. Number four is Lost in the Moment and Found by Sean McGuire. This is the next in the way we're children series. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I actually don't know how to react. I don't think this has ever happened. Oh my god. I have read Lost in the Moment and Found and I loved it. Another five star. Oh my god. Not only are these the books, my 2023 TBR, like these are always books I'm most excited to read. We've had two four stars and two five stars. It's almost like I actually know my reading taste when I like make myself sit down and think about it and some of the like three star average three stars I read are like what I think I should read. But when I sit down think like what are the books I'm most excited to read. If I could only read 10 books this year, I know it. I know it. I know it. I know it. I loved Lost in the Moment and Found by Sean McGuire. This is the next in the way we're children series as you guys know. This one it does come with some heavy warnings. There's a trigger warning on an author's note at the beginning to do with child abuse. But I thought the kind of world that we find ourselves in in this installment is very interesting because it kind of expands on the magic of the series and grows the series a bit. And I do love when a series, obviously this is like the ninth in the series or something, eight. I don't even know, seventh, tenth. I don't know how far in the series we are. But you know, we're quite far into the series. But I do love whenever a series grows and the magic grows and like everything becomes a bit bigger. And I don't like that to be rushed. But I like my favorite example is The Bear of the Nightingale series by Catherine Arden. Every edition in that series grows the world and the magic a little bit.  I can't. I can't. We also have In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. So can I just say another Goodreads winner? And I've read it.    Now I gave this a three star. And for me with TJ Klune, that is like big disappointment, right? That's the same as me giving some authors a one or a two in terms of like how disappointed I am. Because like this one just didn't really do it for me. I just didn't connect to the story. Like TJ Klune's books, I think, because they're quite heavy on the like emotional messaging, right? If you just don't connect to it and you don't buy into that, I think it can be tricky. And I've just always put into that with him. But I did not. I did not for this one. I did. I thought it was kind of boring. Also, in my mind, this is a Wizard of Oz retelling. This is a Wizard of Oz retelling. Like it's very Wizard of Oz. And no one ever talks about that and on mentions it. But it's Wizard of Oz. It's so Wizard of Oz. It's actually painful. Like what are we doing here? It's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in. No one else agreed with me. Anyways, but we've read them. What if I read all these books? You've already read five. How many do you need to read to get half? Like 12 and a half? That is not correct. We're gonna get there. We're only five read. I wonder what the first book is going to be that I haven't read. We also have Love Theoretically by Allie Hazelwood. Okay, I spoke too soon. I have not read Love Theoretically yet. Here she is. Let's get her out. Love Theoretically by Allie Hazelwood. I own it, but I have not read. And I don't really know why. I mean, I love Allie Hazelwood. We know this. She's my romance girlie.  I don't when it comes to romance. And I give her literally always five stars. I don't know what this one's about. Don't ask me to pitch it. It's women in STEM falling in love and getting on with some tall guys. Some tiny women in STEM. Actually, no, I think this woman is described as aggressively medium. So Allie said, listen, the tiny woman critiques that over.  But yes, I have been meaning to get around to this. I don't know when I will, but I definitely need to get around to it soon because Allie's pumping these books out. We got Check and Mate, The YA, which already has come out. We've got Bride coming out early next year, which is like the paranormal, which I need to read. And then we've got another adult romance coming out in the summer. Allie, pump the brakes a bit. Calm down. Calm down. I'm fashion. I'm style. And if they can't keep up, then that's the problem. Bye. Take care. But no, I have not read Love Theoretically yet. Okay. That's the first painful one of the video. We have The Last Word by Taylor Adams, which I am, you know, he shoot. Okay, I'm really excited for The Last Word, but I have not read it. This is one of the books in my defense. I was basically saving any books that I was really excited for that I thought might be nominated for Goodreads Choice Awards for that video. And this is one I didn't even get nominated, which is a freaking outrage. I get some of those books out of here. Get Frida McFadden. I just don't, Frida McFadden didn't need to. She didn't need to. I know she won, but like get out of here. Yeah. So I was hoping this would be nominated and it wasn't. So I was saving it for that. I'm so excited. I have heard mixed things. I know some people really love this and some people have not enjoyed it. I think I'm going to fall on the side of loving it because I love, I think a lot of the tropes and the fun of this. Taylor Adams. No exit. I stand by this. No exit is one of the greatest thrillers ever written. I think it is emblematic of the perfect runner. It should be taught in schools. It's great American literature. It is brilliant American literature. And I don't care what anybody, it is, it's lit. It should be taught in schools. Generally, I think like I'm right in courses. It should be like the example of like, this is a perfect genre thriller. Like fast paced, crazy. Like, oh my God, that book. Once you read it, you'll never recover. But we haven't read it. Oh no, we've had two I haven't read. It's okay. We're still doing well. We're still doing well. The same with my last 2023 release on the list, which is The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz. This is a debut. Oh, she's only gone and read it.  This is my Catherine House of this year. Listen, this is going to be in my best books of 2023 list. And I know that will upset some of you. And you can just live with it. Life's not fair. What's fair. Right. Life's not fair. Because The Writing Retreat, oh, I loved it. For those of you who don't know, it's about these women who go on this writing retreat with this like world famous author. And it's a little bit weird. A little bit. Everything's going wrong with Snowden. It's also like about female relationships. I loved it. I loved it. I think it's genius. And all of you don't see it's genius. Wow. I loved The Writing Retreat. I think it's absolutely incredible. It's a travesty that had too low an average rating to be nominated for the Goodreadies Mystery Seller because I just think everyone should read it. I just don't understand why you guys don't like it. It's amazing. It's so good. The Writing Retreat was so good. It was so fun. I always pitch it as Catherine House meets Bunny. I think if you enjoyed either of those books with their weirdness, with the kind of unsettlingness with female relationships, with the kind of cult-like atmosphere somewhat, I think that's the perfect pitch. I'm quite proud of myself for making that pitch because it's so right. Okay, we're done with the 2023 releases now. What's our next theme? That is the end of the 2023 releases on this list. Now let's get into the 2022 releases. There's a few that I really want to get around to that I didn't know I'd made a category for 2022 releases. I think actually 2022 is my most popular release year that I've read this year to be fair. I've been catching up. That's what I always seem to do. And then it's 2023. I've read quite a lot of 2023 releases, but I think 2022 just snuck over it. So our luck statistically should be here. The first of which is The Daughter of Dr. Moro by Silvia Morone-Garcia. I know I'm going to be reading this this year. I have a plan for a video. God, I didn't do that video until like October.  That took a while. No, I have read The Daughter of Dr. Moro and wasn't my favorite Silvia Morone-Garcia. I loved Mexican Gothic, right? I think I gave that a five or a 4.5. But then the other two Silvia Morone-Garcia as I've read, I haven't loved. They've both been about a three star. And that makes me nervous. I don't know where me and Silvia stand. I don't know what. I don't know how we're doing. I don't know how we're doing. Yeah, I didn't love this. I think it was okay. I was just a bit bored. And listen, it's themed off of the story that one of my favorite books ever is themed off of the island of Dr. Moro. We've got, listen, I read it because it was like similar, book similar to Strange Case of the Alchemist Daughter, which I'm going to be re-reading hopefully the second and third books at the end of this year if I have it in me. I want to re-read those two and I want to re-read Myrtle on the Iron Express at the end of this year, but I don't know if that's going to happen. I don't know if I'm being realistic, but I did not love. I thought I just said the video was going to come out around March time. I didn't do it until October. Jesus. I just come up with other vlog ideas throughout the year that I'm more excited to do.  Also on the list is Nestle and Bone by T. King Fisher. Okay. Okay, that's interesting. I am going to mark that as read because I'm currently reading it and I've got 30 pages left, so I'm going to finish it in like an hour. I'm marking that as read. And by the time this video comes out, the video where I'm reading that will already be out. So I've read it. I've read Nestle and Bone. Can't give you my full thoughts on it yet, but I'm enjoying it. I think it's going to end up being a full star. You'll have seen the vlog maybe if you watch the vlog. I'm really enjoying it. It's just not, you know, me and T. King Fisher, I've given her like two by now, I'm assuming this is a full star, two falls on one 4.5 and I'm just waiting for a five. We've got it in us. I fill the pool. I fill the energy. We just need to like hit at the right moment. Which was Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I've read Our Wives Under the Sea. I enjoyed this. I've read it. Let me mark it down. God, we're doing so well, guys. I've read nine and haven't read two. What? What? Um, I think it's going to go wrong. I don't feel like this can continue. I just, I just appreciate this moment because I just think it's going to go wrong. Our Wives Under the Sea, I enjoyed. It's very weird. It's about these wives and one of them has returned from this deep sea mission and hasn't been the same ever since. And like this is the kind of book don't go into if you want a plot. Don't go into if you want explanations for things. Just go into for pure vibes and you'll be fine. But like go into it with the right expectations. But I'm interested in reading more Julia Armfield in the future. The first is The Last Housewife by Ashley Winsett. I've only gone and read The Last Housewife. We've read ten. We were all so happy that day. It's it's actually hard to even imagine how terrible things would soon become. The Last Housewife was another one that was a little bit disappointing for me. I think I gave it three but it's maybe more of like a 2.5, 2. I can't remember what isn't a spoiler and what isn't. So I'm not going to tell you the plot. But I'm just going to say I didn't feel, I think if you're handling the themes that this book is going to, is handling, I didn't feel like they were handled well. And I never felt like the discussions of those issues got passed the first sentence. Do you know what I mean? They got, they said the initial, it was like if you're writing an essay, it said the first, first line of the essay and never got passed that for me. But I am interested in reading what Ashley Winsett said. I've heard really good things about Midnight's Darkest Hour that's come out. I'm going to keep giving her a go because I gave it in my dreams a whole nine, five stars. But The Last Housewife wasn't it for me. But I've read it. So who cares? And it is The Woman in the Library by Solari Gentile. I'm really hoping that I unwrap this. I've read The Woman in the Library. What is happening? I have read The Woman in the Library. We've read eleven. The Woman in the Library I enjoyed by when and into it was such high expectations.  There's like an author who's writing a book and is getting letters from their friend about the book. But then you're reading the book through their writing as well. And it's locked room and I just didn't feel like it fully went there for me. I don't know. I think if I like a locked room, I like the mystery and the like low locations of the mystery to say a little bit constrained. Like I like it if it's a house for us to say at the house. Or like I don't know. I just think the synopsis made me think this book was going to be done in a different way than it was and it just didn't fully succeed for me. Next we have series to finish baby.  I don't think I'm going to have done series to finish. First we have Rule of Wolves by Lee Bardugo. This would finish off the King of Skars Geology. I've read Rule of Wolves. What is happening? I've read twelve. One more and I've read over half. I still have only read not read two. That's gonna it's gonna we're gonna deteriorate. I read one of rules. I'm glad. I'm just gonna say I'm glad I finished that geology off. It was an easy one to tick off. Hang on guys where's the chairs man? Listen I love you Lee but like the Grishaverse is getting a little bit big for its boots. I'm glad you're doing 9th house. I'm glad you've got this new standalone coming out next year because I think the Grishaverse, I know it's your money makeup but like it's getting a little bit. And this book in particular astrology mixes Shadow Bone and Six of Crows in a way that like hasn't been mixed before and I'm not not into it because I wanted Six of Crows 3 to just be Six of Crows. I don't like Shadow Bone. I don't like Shadow Bone Universe. I don't want the mixing. Get out of here. I just like the crows so moving on. And then another geology that I want to finish is um the start the song of race and ruin one with the one I have to read is The Sum of Storms and Silence. Oh I haven't read The Sum of Storms and Silence. I have not read that. I should have done because it's again a geology that I don't even need to read one more book to finish off but it's long. It's like very chunky. I enjoyed the first book but I can't remember much about it now so I do I believe I own the second book because I just gotta read it but yeah I should have finished that off this year because the longer with any series the longer you go without reading it the more you forget and I feel like I've forgotten a lot about the first book. Actually no now that I think about it it was the game there was they needed to kill each other but you know I and I remember it. I remember it but yeah I have not read A Sum of Storms and Silence. The what is this series called? The Themis Files series. I have to read Only Human by Sylvain Nevelle. I finished The Themis Files. I read Only Human guys I read 13.  Watch me not read any more. I love the first two The Themis Files and this third one for me it didn't need to happen. It didn't need to be a book. The first two could almost be like a self-contained series. I don't think that this third book added anything. I don't think it needed to happen and it would have been better as a novella. It was too long. It wasn't enough to bulk out the book. It was like he thought okay the series needs to end this way but then there wasn't enough happening in the book to justify it. Like if it was a novella I would have been fine but it was a novel. We have four series that I want to start this year. These are the series I really want to prioritize. See I actually think I'm gonna have less luck with this than series to finish because I really try not to start a series so we'll see how it goes.  We're reading it this year. I promise you I have read Finley Donovan and I really enjoyed it. I loved Finley Donovan. It was so much fun. I really enjoyed Finley Donovan. I'm excited to continue on in the series um yeah it's definitely my kind of book. You guys know me by kind of book and you yelled at me for like years and I didn't read it so I'm glad yeah we love you Finley. Then we have the Veronica Speedwell series. This one is The Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourne. I haven't started the Veronica Speedwell series guys. Oh no this has now gone downhill. I haven't started it and I know you're going to keep yelling at me but it's so long. It's like a seven, eight, nine, ten book series. Why? Why? Why is it this long? No I really want to. It's now wrapped up because now A Curious Beginning is one of the oldest books on my TBI. I've owned it for so long. I've owned it for so long and I haven't read it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know what's wrong with me. You guys I know you all told me so many times to start it. I know I need to. I know. I know I need to but I have not started it. This is I I if I would I'm not going to put this on my 2024 TBR but I'm certain I'm going to read it in 2024. One that is wrapped up is Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson. This is witchy vibes. I start I've read that. Oh my god I've read 15. What is going on? What is going on? And I loved it. I loved Her Majesty's Royal Coven and I own the second one already. Oh my god. I could cry. I could cry. Why am I doing so well? I'm so happy. I think this might be the best I've ever done at one of these. What is going on? No I've read Her Majesty's Royal Coven and I loved it. I think it's so witchy. I love. If you're gonna say you're giving me witches, you're gonna give me witches. There's so many witchy becs I get banned by. We've seen it time and time again but Her Majesty's Royal Coven did not ban me. And then the last one is a cozy mystery series that I'd really love to start and that is Murder Before Even Song by Richard Coles. That said I haven't started the Murder For Even Song series. I own the second run as well. You know here's the thing it would be easy for me to read these but I don't want to add to the series title.  Yeah I need to start the series because I have the first two becs. I haven't had the best things about them. They are quite lonely rated on Goodreads. They're like within my five lowest rate becs. The first one is at least. But as long as I go into the Rack expectations, I'm not expecting it to be there as I'm at a club. You you will never be Richard Osmond but that's okay. But as long as I go into it just for fun cozy mystery, I think I can have a good time with it but we shall see. We have three more ladies and gentlemen. We have three more and these are all non-fiction. I would like to read. I do want to try and prioritize. Watch me read none of these. Fiction. Fitting non-fiction into vlogs. I want to read non-fiction. I want to fit non-fiction but I don't do it. I don't do it. Time and time again I don't do it. That's so upsetting. Oh okay I'm not going to have read any of these I don't think. I think I have read more non-fiction this year but I just don't I just don't feel like I'm going to have read them. It's In Defense of Witches why women are still on trial but I haven't read it. We can probably speedrun these but then we'll just talk about them in one go. Let's just find out what these three non-fiction books are. It is Know My Name by Chanel Miller.  I haven't read Know My Name. Last one I won't have read it. I won't have read it. It is Harlots Horses and Hackabots by Kate Lister. A History of Sex for Sale. Oh I haven't read it! I just knew my bones. See as soon as that non-fiction category came up I knew. I knew. Okay so you had In Defense of Witches which I still really really want to read. It's one of the ones that I look at the most and then go I'd like to read you. Same I mean Know My Name I just don't know when I'm gonna be ready to read that but I am gonna have to read that at some point because I know everyone who's read that has given that a five stars and says how emotional and heavy hitting and impactful and incredibly written it is. So I still really want to read it. I think I've just been a bit intimidated by it and then Harlots Horses and Hackabots. When did I get that? I thought I got that last year for my birthday. I must have got that the year before for my birthday. I've owned that book nearly two years. When did I make this video? 17th January? No I got that the year before. I thought I got that this year for my birthday. I've owned that nearly two years. Wow. I thought that was like a new book on the TBR. Jesus. It's a big book right? It's like very it's more of like a textbook-y thing and I really want to read it because I think it's an important topic to learn about but I have not read it. So we read 15 books of my 2023 and did not read eight. I think that's pretty good guys. I am so proud of her I could cry. I'm happy with that. I read almost double the amount that I had not read that in my in my mind. It's a success. Let's all just applaud everyone. It's a success. I'm happy with that. Let me know how you think I did. Let me know which those eight that I haven't read you most think I should get to pretty soon. You're all going to say no my name. I know you are. I know you are. I know I need to read it. And also love theoretically in the last word. I just almost anticipated 2023 releases I have not got round to. So they're they're pretty high up for me as well. But um yeah let me know how you think I did.  I think this is like this is the best I've ever done. When I react to my 24 books read before I turn 24 in January don't I don't know the numbers but don't expect anything close to this. Anyways guys oh wait no I did did I do my maths wrong? I did my maths wrong. Half of 23 is 11 and a half not 12 and a half. Sorry sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry it's 11 and a half. Okay I'm just gonna acknowledge that now. Should have been 11 and a half. Anyway it doesn't matter because I read 15. Um thank you guys so much for watching. Let me know any books that were on your 2023 TBR that you have or haven't read if you made one of those. And I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!


Dr. Dave Mayer is walking to each spring training park to bring awareness to the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. My wife looked at me and said, you've got to be crazy. Every day that I walk, I walk in memory of a caregiver or patient that's lost their lives due to preventable medical harm. I think people don't realize that health care preventable harm is the third leading cause of death in the United States. We need to improve the systems and processes to allow the workers at the front lines to do their job as best as they can. We need your support.


On 17 May, we will be celebrating the 50th World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. This year, we will focus on bridging the civilization gap. Setting standards is a fundamental pillar of ITU's mission as a specialized agency of the United Nations for information and communication technologies. You want to connect to the Internet, enjoy a sports event on TV, listen to radio in your car, or watch a video on your smartphone. ITU standards make it possible. The upcoming 5G standards, especially if coupled with artificial intelligence, will support a new range of applications, which we will soon take for granted, from self-driving cars to saver and smart cities. ITU standards ensure interoperability, open up global markets and spur innovation and growth. They are good for developed and developing countries. They help accelerate ICTs for all sustainable development goals. I call upon ITU member states, industry members, SMEs, academies, together with UN sister agencies, our partners and all stakeholders to support ITU's bridging the civilization gap program. And prosperity and well-being for all. Thank you.


Millions of Americans come down with bladder infections, urinary tract infections, every year, including more than a million children. Most cases stay in the bladder, but when the bacteria creep up into the kidneys or get into the bloodstream, things can get serious. Thankfully, we have antibiotics. But there's now a pandemic of a new multi-drug-resistant strain of E. coli, discovered just in 2008, and now the so-called ST131 strain went from unknown to a leading cause of bladder infections the world over, resistant to even some of our second and third line antibiotics. And it's been found in chicken, retail chicken breasts sampled from across the country, documenting a persisting reservoir of extensively antimicrobial-resistant X-PEC bacteria, the extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli, including the ST131 strain in retail chicken products in the United States, suggesting a potential public health threat. See, urinary tract infections may be food-borne, by which they mean predominantly poultry, chicken, and turkey, so maybe we shouldn't be feeding antibiotics to these animals by the ton in poultry production. But wait, food-borne bladder infections? What are you doing with that drumstick? No eating contaminated chicken can lead to the colonization of the rectum with these bacteria that can then, even months later, crawl up into the bladder to cause an infection. The problem of increasing antimicrobial resistance is so dire, that some experts are predicting that the era of antibiotics may be coming to an end, ushering in a post-antibiotic era in which common infections and minor injuries can once again kill. More than 80% of E. coli isolated from beef, pork, and poultry exhibited resistance to at least one antibiotic, and more than half from poultry resistant to five different drugs. One of the ways this happens is that viruses, called bacteriophages, can transfer antibiotic-resistant genes between bacteria. About a quarter of these viruses, isolated from chicken meat, are found able to transduce antibiotic drug resistance into E. coli. And one of the big problems with this is that disinfectants used to kill bacteria are in many cases not able to eliminate these viruses. Some of these viruses are even resistant to bleach at the kinds of concentrations used in the food industry. And likewise alcohol, which is what you find in many hand sanitizers, also unable to harm most of them. The irony is that the industry has tried to intentionally feed these viruses to chickens. Why would they do that? It can boost egg production and hence an increased body weight gain in broiler chickens to get them to slaughter weight faster. The only thing that seems to dissuade the industry is if anything affects the taste of the meat. That's why the industry had to stop spraying chickens with benzene to try to kill off all the parasites. The meat ended up with a distasteful flavor described as strong, acidic, musty, medicinal, biting, objectionable, and tasty. But what if you buy organic chicken? For another type of bacteria, endococcus, antibiotic-resistant bugs were found in both conventional and organically-raised chicken, but were less common in organic, only about one in three contaminated with drug-resistant bugs compared to nearly one in two. But in a study of hundreds of prepackaged retail chicken breasts tested from 99 grocery stores, being labeled organic or antibiotic-free did not seem to impact the contamination levels of antibiotic-resistant E. coli from fresh retail chicken, though purchasing meat from natural food stores appeared to be safer regardless of how it was labeled. Kosher chicken appeared to be the worst, nearly twice the level of antibiotic-resistant E. coli contamination compared to conventional, which goes against the whole concept of kosher. No difference in drug resistance between the E. coli swab from conventional chicken versus organic and raised without antibiotic chicken. But either way, kosher was worse. But how could organic and raised without antibiotic chicken not be better? Well, it could be cross-contamination at the slaughter plant, so bugs just jumped from one to the other. Or it could be the organic chicken loophole. USDA organic standards prohibits the use of antibiotics and poultry, starting on day two of the animal's life. This is an important loophole, since even antibiotics considered critical for human health are routinely injected into one-day-old chicks and eggs, which has been directly associated with antibiotic-resistant foodborne infections. And there was no difference in the presence of X-beck bacteria to an organic and conventional, the bacteria implicated in urinary tract infections. These findings suggest that retail chicken products in the United States, even if they're labeled organic, pose a potential health threat to consumers because they're contaminated with extensively antibiotic-resistant E. coli. And even if we were able to get the poultry industry to stop using antibiotics, the contamination of chicken meat with X-beck bacteria could still remain a threat.


of jamaica would have gotten on the plane as the jamaican number two is now the jamaica number one in the event because natrice east is not taking part in the 100 east focusing on the 200 only as we go through the lineup mckenzie crab of the british virgin islands will start in lane number two i have to imagine she's related to dion crab comes in with a 1268 seed time might have to improve on that well we'll have to improve on that if she is to make the championship race later on she starts in lane number two here's a look at the lineup cram goes into tiana richardson of trinidad and torpego in three per channelly blake of jamaica in four jerry manuel of st lucia in five kimia fifths of st kitsanevis in lane six anetta michelle of anguilla in seven and kiana henchell of the bahamas in lane number eight lake of jamaica the clear favorite in this heat i remember only the fastest only the winner of each heat advances on position right now 12 75 the number to look at in terms of the bubble number a couple of athletes here in the low 12s i think jerry manuel produced a sub 12 run towards the end of last year kiana richardson trinidad and tobago 12.27 so on an intimate heat of the under 17 girls 100 meters fifths of st kitsanevis delighted to be here at the carifter games broad smile as a pensive looking anetta michelle of anguilla stands in lane number seven there is henchell of bahamas in lane eight semifinal round of the under 17 girls 100 meters we had preliminaries shelly old for this morning not contested as all the athletes were advanced to this stage finals will be this evening the fireworks to conclude the opening day stand up stand up yeah once again another issue at the start we've seen this all day and once again the competitor has been asked to stand it's good experience for the athletes but it's not what you want to happen certainly you want them to be able to have the experience of being in the best position to perform well 12.85 is the bubble time at this stage 12.75 yes correction 12.75 is the bubble time at this stage saa of guadalupe 1244 tobayas of trinidad and tobago 1250 wallace of the bahamas 1254 and jones of bermuda 1275 those are the ones on the bubble we take the four automatic qualifiers that's the four heat winners hinson of gayana already through so to etienne of dominica set up they go for the third and penultimate heat prashanali blake of jomeka got away well but she has competition from immanuel of st lucha and immanuel of st lucha pushing blake all the way blake just holds on and goes at sub 12 as well 1194 but that's a brilliant run coming from jeda immanuel of st lucha and that i think should be good enough to get her into the final as well she gave prashanali blake all she could handle in that first round heat semi-final round heat 1198 is the time for prashanali blake of jomeka really nice run from immanuel coming out of choselle in st lucha down on the southwest coast you see her coming out there and not the tightest of technique but she is giving it all and she's really pushing prashanali to the utmost both of them battling to the line and blake just being able to come up with it you see that lack of relaxation by the young st lucha and 15 years old her first time on the carifter stage perhaps just costing her towards the end of that race and immanuel 12.03 blake 11.98 which is in 12.28 crab 12.40 so a number of those young ladies who were on the bubble now unfortunately of it if they were in a world competition ricardo they would be in the bubble room and exiting just about no