going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, a popular resistance broadcast of hot news out of the region. In partnership with Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti America's team, Code Pink, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, Interreligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast Thursdays at 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, right here on YouTube Live, including channels for the Convo Couch, Popular Resistance, and Code Pink. Today, this is a special holiday broadcast on Friday, December 30th. Watch for us next week on Thursday again. Post broadcast recordings can be found at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Telegram, redindymedia.com, and now under podcast at popularresistance.org. Today's episode, sob oral agreement focuses on legitimacy of the Maduro government, and our guest, our returning guest for all of you, you'll recognize him, is author Latin, labor attorney, human rights activist, and great friend, I was going to say Latin American activist solidarity partner in crime with me, Dan Kovalec, and Dan is also with Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which is one of our broadcast partners. So welcome, Dan, always great to have a conversation with you. Thank you, Terry. Good to be here. So let me give all of you a quick background as to what our conversation is going to be based on today, and just so all of you know there has been a few updates in the last couple of days, so we've got a lot to talk about. So here we go. On December 20th, in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida, Judge Robert N. Skola heard oral arguments on Alex Sob's motion to dismiss the case against him. The factual issue for the court to decide was, quote, and these are Dan's words, all of you, whether Mr. Sob was a special envoy from Venezuela to Iran, traveling on a mission when he was detained in Cape Verde and extradited to the United States and therefore entitled to diplomatic immunity. Dan was present for the hearing and we'll discuss in detail the hearing results and what has ensued since December 20th. I should also let all of you know that this program has been following the case of Alex Sob since his detainment in Cape Verde 12 June 2020. Today is our third episode focusing on this case and I will include in the program notes links to a couple of Dan's articles that we're going to talk about today and also the two prior WTF episodes that focused on the Sob case. So Dan, welcome. We've got a lot to talk about today. Yes, it's a very rich case. Well, so maybe for the audience, it might be good to just give a quick recap of who Alex Sob is and what happened in June of 2020 that has led to the judge ruling he does not have diplomatic immunity. This has been going on for two plus years. Yeah, so Alex Sob is an interesting guy, is an interesting background. He's actually Middle Eastern by birth. He's half Palestinian. His dad was Palestinian and his mother was Lebanese. And his father was a Palestinian businessman who moved the family to Colombia, South America to do business, which is where Sob grew up. Now, this may sound strange to people, but it's not. They moved to Barranquilla. I believe either Barranquilla or Santa Marta. Anyway, on the Caribbean coast, there's a lot of people of Arab descent there and also Jewish descent. During World War II, Jews fled to Colombia. So it's a very, anyway, interesting demographic demographic fact about about Colombia. In any case, Sob himself became a Colombian businessman as well and then started doing business with Venezuela. And in the course of his business dealings, he started doing some business around the housing projects of the Chavez Maduro governments as well as helping get food for the food program known as the CLAP. And the CLAP is a direct result of US sanctions against Venezuela. That's correct. They're not able to import foods, food products. And yeah, and Sob became very adept at navigating US sanctions to get food to Venezuela, to get building supplies to Venezuela, to get oil to Venezuela. And at some point in 2018, he is appointed by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry as a special envoy to officially represent Venezuela with other governments like the government of Iran, but also Russia, again, in pursuit of oil, food, medicines, building supplies for Venezuela. And in the course of his diplomatic work, he went to Russia once and he went to Iran twice to procure, again, these food, medicine, oil for Venezuela. They would actually, Venezuela would pay for the supplies in gold. And Sob actually used his own plane to carry the gold to Iran and to bring the supplies back. And then the Venezuelans are using gold for financial transactions because they have no access to the global financial market. They cannot use US dollars. Nor can they use the Swift overnight banking system. And they also sit on a lot of gold. Their nation has a lot of gold under it. So he used his own plane to bring this gold, which is kind of incredible. And so then he is going to make a third trip to Iran for the same purpose at this point to just negotiate another deal for food and medicine for Venezuela. And at the hearing, one of the people who testified was Sob's security guard, who, by the way, was provided by the government for him because he was a diplomat, who went to Milaflores, the presidential palace of Nicholas Maduro, before this last attempted trip to Iran. And the security guard testified that he was handed at that meeting some diplomatic pouches, which included correspondence from Nicholas Maduro and the president and Delcey Rodriguez, the vice president to different officials in Iran. The letter from Maduro was actually to the supreme leader. And the security guard testified that when he escorted Sob to his plane, he took note of the items he was carrying. And again, those included these letters in sealed diplomatic pouches. Sob then flies towards Iran, but he has to refuel on the way. And he wanted to refuel in the west coast of Africa and Senegal or Morocco. But I lost your audio. I'm not sure we lost your audio. Hello. Yeah, there you are. Okay. At what point did I cut off? So he wanted so he's flying. This is his third trip to Iran. He has to refuel on his way from Venezuela to Tehran. And he wants to stop in Senegal or Morocco. He wants. Yeah. So Sob wants to stop either in Morocco or Senegal on the west coast of Africa. He's denied the right to do that. And it's thought because the US pressured those countries don't let him land. So that forced him to land in Cabo Verde, which was a Portuguese colony. And it's a group of it's a nation that is made up of several islands off the coast of West Africa. So he lands in Cabo Verde. His plan is to stay on the plane and just refuel on the runway and keep going. But when he lands, the Cabo Verde officials are there prepared to arrest him. They do arrest him under a request by the United States. The US claimed that there was an Interpol notice for his arrest. But turns out that that notice was not made until about a day later after his arrest. But the US did ask Cabo Verde to arrest him. He was arrested. And he was held on Cabo Verde for over a year. Again, at the request of the United States. Now, one interesting thing that happened at the hearing was as follows. So the prosecution has been claiming for some time, they basically would claim that all the facts the defense is saying aren't true. All the facts that make up their claim he's a diplomat. One of the things that claim was not true was the existence of these letters, the diplomatic letters that I mentioned. They said those weren't created till after the fact. They were fabricated after the fact to try to prove he was a diplomat when he wasn't. Okay. So a very interesting thing at the hearing was the defense brought a young lawyer from Cabo Verde to Miami who testified that he went to see Saab in prison in Cabo Verde. Discovered that contrary to the policy of the Cabo Verde corrections department, he was never given an option as to who to give his property to when he was arrested. So all the property remained in the possession of the prison officials. So the lawyer said, well, Mr. Saab, why don't you, if you want, I will take those into my possession and take care of them. But you have to sign this note as saying I give you the right to take possession of my goods. And so he does that. The young lawyer presents that to the prison officials. He takes Saab's possessions, which included one big suitcase and a smaller suitcase. He takes those home. And then within about 45 minutes, he opens those up. And within the suitcase, he finds these diplomatic letters in sealed diplomatic pouches. But the seals were broken and the letters were opened. Clearly someone had looked at these. Now, here's an interesting little part of this. On the top of the copies of the letters that were presented in evidence and that we saw were some markings. This was the prosecution presented. No, this was the defense presented. Okay. Okay, sorry. No, that's okay. They asked them about these markings at the top, which showed a date. I think the date was June 20th, 2020. I lost your audio again. Stop. We lost your voice again. No, I can't hear you. Sorry. There. Okay. Okay. Sorry about that. I don't know. Too animated when you're talking. Right. Okay. I will try to be still. Okay. No, it's great. Keep going. Okay. So they ask him, the defense asks him about these markings at the top of all the letters that indicated date, June 20th, I believe 2020. I believe that's the date, which was the day he was arrested in Cabo Verde. And next to that was something that showed a JPEG, okay, which suggested that these documents had been photographed on that day and then maybe shown to someone else. Okay. And they asked the defense. Photographed and sent somewhere, maybe. Well, yes. We're sure. Yeah. So the defense says to the lawyer, were those markings at the top of those letters when you saw them? And he said no, which means the letters, the copies of the letters that the lawyer saw did not have those markings at the top. They were made, at some other point. And those were the copies, by the way, those letters with the markings at the top showing they've been copied. Those had been given by the prosecution to the defense in the course of discovery. The American prosecution, right? So most likely is that it was given to the Americans. It was copied and shown to American officials. Yeah. From Cabo Verde, where he saw them. Yeah. Right. So the Americans and the people in Cabo Verde darn well knew he was a diplomat with diplomatic pouches. Yeah. Wow. And then, of course, the prosecution, I would argue, did not tell the truth. In fact, they lied when they tried to claim, oh, these were created after the fact. No. Because this lawyer saw the originals without those markings. Yeah. The young lawyer. Yeah. And it varied within days after Saad had been arrested. Okay. Yeah. And then the interesting thing is the prosecution lawyer tries to cross-examine the young lawyer. And by the way, he asks some questions at first that have nothing to do really with the letters. He's just trying to impeach the guy. And the defense stands up and objects, says, look, this is beyond the cross-scope. This is irrelevant. And the judge gets flustered and finally says to the prosecution lawyer, are you going to challenge? We lost your audio. We lost you. Are you going to challenge? Sorry. No. Okay. I don't know why this has happened. In any case, I think I know where I, so... Are you going to challenge the young lawyer? Right. And the defense, or sorry, the prosecution lawyer says no, we're not going to challenge that. And the judge is like, well, then why are you asking these questions at six o'clock p.m.? And the guy just sits down. So it's unrebudded that the lawyer saw these things. So the long and short of it is this, the evidence, uncontroverted evidence shows Saab was a special envoy appointed by the foreign ministry in 2018, by the way, at a time when the U.S. recognized Nicolas Maduro as president. Correct. And that at the time he was seized in Cabo Verde, he was on a diplomatic mission from Venezuela with diplomatic papers going to Iran and that Iran had accepted his mission and him as an envoy. And so the defense's argument was, well, then we satisfy all the elements for him as a special envoy protected by diplomatic immunity. And they cite this case. There's an 11 set circuit case involving a Saudi diplomat under similar circumstances, not identical but similar. And they say under that precedent, he should be given diplomatic immunity just like the Saudi was in the 11th circuit. And by the way, he's being held in Miami, which is in the 11th circuit. So everything looks pretty good as to the law for this guy. But ultimately, the judge rules against the defense and finds he does not have diplomatic immunity. And the opinions rather, well, it's not terribly long for a court opinion, but it's kind of involved.  The first steps he goes through, he says, well, first of all, I find he's not a diplomat because Nicolas Maduro is not the president of Venezuela. The government is illegitimate because the State Department says so. Because he's representing Maduro, I find he's not a legitimate diplomat. Okay. But then, of course, we all disagree with that. And of course, the other argument that defense had was, look, even if you put aside who the proper president is, no one disputes that the foreign ministry is the proper diplomatic wing of the Venezuelan government, whatever that is. And that the U.S. he... Whether it's Maduro's foreign ministry or Guaido's foreign ministry, it's still the same institute. Guaido's getting his passport from the same ministry that Saab got. He doesn't have his own foreign ministry at all. But he rejects that or doesn't even when you get to that. But so he goes through a several things where he says, look, Maduro... We lost you. You froze just a bit. Yeah. He says, even if Maduro... Let's assume Maduro is president. I don't think he is, but let's assume he is. He just says, still he's not a diplomat because I find he was a temporary diplomat on a temporary mission in transit to his diplomatic destination, which was Iran. And therefore he finds under the Vienna Convention, which he finds is the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, he finds that he does not have transit Tory protection in a place at Cabo Verde where he's on his way to a destination because, one, Cabo Verde did not accept him as a diplomat and neither has the U.S. accepted him as a diplomat. And that's how he distinguishes the Saudi case in the 11th Circuit. He said in the Saudi case, ultimately after the fact, by the way, after the dispute arises with the Saudi official, the U.S. accepts his diplomatic status upon the request of Saudi Arabia, but he said that never happened here. Neither Cabo Verde nor the U.S. accepted his diplomatic status or accepted him as an envoy, and therefore I find he does not have... We lost your audio. Hello? Yep. There you are. Okay. Where did he lose it? So he doesn't have diplomatic... The Saudi was recognized as having diplomatic status because the United States, ultimately after the fact, recognized it. Whereas with Alex Saab, the United States, nor Cabo Verde, they recognized him as having diplomatic status while he was in transit. Right. Now, first of all, I think there's a huge doubt about all that because we know, and this is put in evidence, we know from Mark Esper's book, that the U.S. was talking about the fact that Saab was a diplomat behind the scenes. That is, they were concerned with his arrest, they wanted his arrest, but they also said, look, we may have problems with it because he's a diplomat. This is Mark Esper, the former Secretary of Defense. Right. And he wrote this kind of tell-all book, and he talks a little bit about the Saab case, and he said people were talking about this and worried about this and recognized he was a diplomat. But the judge doesn't deal with that. You know, again, the problem is the judge defers just entirely to the State Department about what they want in this case and what they think in this case, even though it may not be truly what they ever thought, but in any case. But according to his ruling, the problem I see with his ruling, and many do, is how do you have diplomatic relations when really in the end it's up to the, any country that wants to arrest a diplomat, it's up to them to say, oh, I recognize you as a diplomat, regardless of whether your country recognizes you as a diplomat. We're just going to, you know, the whole idea behind diplomatic immunity, and this goes back centuries, right? Yeah, right. It's the idea that if I send a diplomat from Rome to Athens, and he comes to Athens and he says, you know, hey, the king wants you or the emperor, you know, wants to talk to you about making peace, the whole idea is you shouldn't shoot the guy, right? He should, you know, or because then you never send a diplomat, right? If you shoot the messenger, no one's going to send you a message and we don't think that's good. We think it's good for the relations between countries to have messengers like this who have immunity and aren't going to be shot because that you don't like their message, right? Well, and that's what the letters are for, correct? The letters are to show the king of Spain has sent me, you know, to the emperor of Rome. This is the letter saying I'm supposed to be, that's what those letters are all about. And ambassadors still exchange. They still have to show the letter. And you should be protected on your way there too for the same reason. And if you have a diplomatic pouch, that should be inviolate. You should not, no one should be grommaging through it or stealing it or whatever. You should be protected. I don't want it done to yourself in return. Well, that's the problem. And what, you know, in the end, the US's position on all this is, well, we're strong enough to protect our diplomats. If you take one of our diplomats, we'll just bomb your country, right? We're strong enough to just use brute force to protect our diplomats. But we, because we're so strong, we're just going to decide willy-nilly if any country we don't like, if their diplomats are bona fide or not, you know, and again, you can't have an international system like that. It won't work and it's not working. I mean, this international is broken down because of this, because of selective justice, selective application of conventions. Led by the United States. Led by the United States, that narrative. We've done it. We did it on purpose. We destroyed the international legal system, because again, we thought we were above it. We have all the power militarily, economically. And, you know, one of the best examples of this, of course, is the International Criminal Court, which, you know, Bill Clinton helped negotiate the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He tried to weaken it as much as possible to prevent it from applying to the US. He then signed that convention or the Rome Statute, but he never got it ratified. And then George W. Bush unsigned it. So the US never became a party to the Rome Statute, but of course, it tries to apply it to every other country, you know, right? It's going to try to apply it against Russia now. For example, meanwhile, the US doubled down on its own lack of acceptance of the Rome Statute of the ICC by passing what's known as the Invasion of the Hague Act, which George W. Bush signed into law, which says the US can invade the Hague to rescue any US persons who the ICC wants to prosecute, okay? So that's how insane the US's position is on international law. We have the right to invade the Hague to stop the ICC from prosecuting one of our own, but we're going to make sure other countries are prosecuted by the ICC. Well, this is why the world is barking at the US. It's like, well, this is absurd and therefore, you know, and, you know, Father Miguel Discoto, who was the foreign minister of Nicaragua and who became the president of the UN General Assembly, he said while he was president, he said when there were debates about the ICC and its application, he said, I believe that the ICC should prosecute no one until it has the right to prosecute everyone. Everyone. Yeah. You cannot have this selective justice system. You cannot have a selective diplomatic system, but that's what's been set up. And that's where we are. And I think this judge, who seemed very smart, seemed fair, at least in that way he handled the hearing, in the end, I think he buckled to pressure from the executive branch of the US government, which again, we have a separation of powers in these countries. And it was always recognized that the judicial branch should have the most protection because from being bullied by the by the executive branch and the legislature, because the judicial branch has no power, right, as in either the power of the sword that the executive branch has or the purse, which the legislative branch has. So we should be very cautious about allowing it to be influenced and pressured by the other branches. And yet this is an example, I believe, where the court just buckled to the executive branch and basically threw its hands up and said, State Department doesn't recognize Maduro. It didn't recognize this guy as a diplomat, so I'm going to punt.  And if someone disagrees with me, let the appellate court disagree. And by the way, more or less said that nor argue. He kept saying, whatever I do, I'm just going to be appealed anyway. So, you know, so I don't really have to do anything. Yeah, you know, he's an older judge, as most judges are, most judges are long in the tooth. And you know, why not take it? Why not take a stand and take a chance?  It's still alive. But that's where we're at. It's a really sad situation because I think lurking behind the case and it felt this way at the hearing and what things were said lurking behind the case again, is this is, you know, the US's, you know, American judicial reach over judicial reach, but also American exceptionalism that we are the, you know, you know, we are the indispensable nation that can do what we want. And when there's countries like Venezuela and Iran that we really don't respect and we don't really treat them as equals, you know, we're just going to do what we want with them. And we're not, we're going to treat their diplomats not like other ones. If this was a case deal, you know, involving France or the UK, this would have come out so differently, you know, we're not going to not recognize their government or not recognize their diplomats because they're fellow white people, you know, I'm sorry, but that's what it comes down to their fellow European also part of what the US defines as the international community, the international community. You know, I lost you. Okay, I can hear you now. I can hear you. I couldn't hear you either. So the United States defines the who composes the international, who comprises the international community. And the, and then within that community, the US defines the rules based order. And there's a whole lot of countries that are excluded from that, including Venezuela and Iran and Nicaragua and Cuba and probably China by the end of the day.  Yeah. Well, yeah, I'd like to say a couple things about that. Or the West is so isolated, it's probably better. So one, I agree with you on that point. First, I want to say this, that the UN, the basic premise of the UN Charter, and it says it in the UN Charter, which the US helped draft and was one of the original signatories. It says every nation is sovereign and every member of the UN is an equal member, right? It's, you know, there's no, there's no hierarchy, right? Every country is equal under the UN Charter. So this view that we're talking about that the US has for some of these other countries defies the UN Charter, that the US is a member of an out draft. But something you said, I think, is true about this iron curtain thing. Even when the so-called iron curtain existed, you could freely travel to the Soviet Union, for example, even on an air of law Russian aircraft from New York City, say. I lost your audio. You have to sit still. I still can't hear you. Can you hear me now? Yeah, yes. So back then, if you, especially if you're an American, with an American passport, you could pretty much travel anywhere pretty easily. Most people could. And by the way, back in biblical times, you know, you have, for example, the example of Saint Paul, who was Saul, who went from Jerusalem to Damascus, right by land, presumably on a camel or a walk there or something. You can't do that anymore. You cannot go from Jerusalem to Damascus, Syria, by land and nor can you fly there. And it's almost impossible to fly to Damascus. I know this because I've gone to Damascus and for the most part, you have to fly to Lebanon and then drive from Beirut about four hours to Damascus. It's not an easy journey. And we can find many examples of this. If you live in Gaza, you can't even leave Gaza, right? And it's very hard, if not impossible, to travel to Gaza anymore, which now is a wall around it. After the sanctions imposed on Russia after February of this year, you cannot fly directly to Russia. Again, this wasn't even true during the Cold War. You could fly directly to Russia. Now you have to go either through Turkey or you fly to Helsinki, Finland, and then even then you have to drive into Russia, the train between Helsinki and Russia, which even Lenin used during World War One. You can't use that train. That train's closed now. So I've been saying for a while, and I think you what you were saying touches on this, the world has gotten bigger. It hasn't gotten smaller. It's gotten bigger. And that's true with Venezuela, which is now very hard to fly due from the U.S. because of sanctions, Nicaragua, which has become harder to fly to Cuba, which is also harder to get to because of sanctions and the embargo.  Now in 2022, almost 2023, then it was say 20 years ago or 30 years ago or even again during the Cold War. And that's a very regrettable and sad fact, but that is the fact. We have these two, I mean, a lot of people in particular, a lot of our friends will talk about this multilateral world emerging. And we truly see that throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and the alignment with Venezuela and Iran and Russia and all, not just aligning with the West. And that was very clear in the Salax Summit in September of 2021 in Mexico City. But what? It's like, I forget, I'm not sure what the right word is. You see, I hesitate to say it's a multilateral world because to me, just as we were talking, this international community, this definition of what the international community is and rules based order is definitely Western Europe, Canada, United States, New Zealand, Australia. And it's almost more of a two or a buy.  You have the Western, the West as defined by the United States, and then the rest of the world, Russia, China, Iran, India, many countries in Latin America. It's two. It isn't necessarily multi to me as much as it is a buy. The world is splitting in two again, like the first Cold War. The Eurasian component, the Asia Pacific component, the non West component is multi polarity within that component. But the world as a whole is becoming two components. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that's true. And the reason for that is that the US wanted to be the unipolar world, right? I want to be the only and now other countries are emerging and so and they're joining with each other. So basically, it's the US, it's Western European partners, Japan, Australia against everyone else. That's essentially what we're seeing. By the way, I have to also say because we just finished Christmas and for my orthodox friends, they're heading into Christmas on January 7th. When we talk about the world getting bigger, I'm sure you've seen this meme for Christmas that if Mary and Joseph had to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem, now they'd have to go through 15 chick points. The baby would not have been born. Yeah, or the baby would have been born in a checkpoint. And who knows what would have happened to it and would have had to pass a wall as well. So I think that's a very important meme. I think that's a very important thing to reflect on during the holidays. I mean, this is where the world we live in now. It's not, you know, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the, you know, the US declaring itself the world's only power, you know, the promise of that that the US was making was that it would make a more just and democratic and peaceful world. And it's been anything but that. The US has made sure it's been anything but that. And that's a fact. And that's what we're seeing now. That's why we see the rise of this, as you say, either either duo, polar world or multi-polar world is the rest of the world sick of it. Yeah. And they have the ability to build. They have the economic ability and also the will now to, to collaborate right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's and that and that world that's emerging to me is very, very exciting. It is. And it's necessary. It had, again, the US has lost its right to rule. I mean, it, you know, I mean, it had the world, it had the control of the world and it used it very, very wrongly, you know, by invading other countries, creating tens of millions of refugees through its wars of choice. And the world has said, look, we're done. Bye-bye. And you're going to see that rejection happening more and more because it's not sustainable. Can we, in our last few minutes, can we just go back real quick to that case of Alex Sob, because there's a few things I'd like to share with the audience. And I think this is, in listening to you speak about what you witnessed in the court last week in Miami, I think this is something really important to reiterate with the audience that Alex Sob was made a special envoy by the Venezuelan president, vice president, foreign ministry in 2018. President Maduro was re-elected by the Venezuelan people May of 2018. I don't know if you were there for that. I took a delegation. I was there. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And I was, I was there as well. So just so the audience know, we were there. It wasn't democratic. I was here for both Maduro elections. Yeah. And, you know, and then inauguration day, or inauguration was January of 2019. And it was in February of 2019 that that the Venezuelans or the U.S. State Department gave the Venezuelans their stand up president, Juan Guaido. So it's this whole thing of who was president and when it's really clear under which presidency under which foreign ministry the the the special instructions were written for Alex Sob.  They were written before the stand up president. So or the U.S. appointed president is probably a more appropriate. I mean, it's clear. I don't there's there's really not even a way I don't how do you even argue around that, except like you said earlier, the prosecution is making up facts as they go along, rewriting history, whatever that crazy notion comes out of Washington, D.C. It's true. It's true. Oh, I want to say one other thing. There was there is kind of a nice moment in the in the hearing. There was a woman who works in the passport office of the foreign Israel and passport office. Yeah. She was a witness and she testified from Venezuela. Okay, via video. And she was a very I really liked her a lot. She was by the way in the compiler services. Is that yeah, yeah. And she was clear, clearly a Shavista because when they swore in she held held up her little blue Constitution and swore on the Constitution. I mean, when she's asked to swear on the Constitution, but no one no one held the book in front of her, but she had her own that she held up. Good for her. But she said a few great things. So first of all, the prosecution tried to trick her by saying, Well, you know, they tried to ask her a question about the Guaido government. And she said, Well, first of all, I want to say there is not and has never been a Guaido government. The duly elected president Nicholas Maduro. But the other thing she said, and I think this is probably a good thing to end on to really give people an impression about Alex Sob and what he was doing. When she was asked about sob, we she said at some point she said, Well, we in Venezuela are very thankful for Alex Sob for taking the risk he did to get us food and medicine, you know, that that's what he was doing in his diplomatic work. And that was what he was doing. And he saved a lot of lives by what he was doing. And to me, that's what this case is also at its root about the fact that he, you know, that's what he was working to do that he risked his life and liberty to do it. And he's now sitting in jail because he did do it. And in Miami, right, and we didn't, we didn't specifically mention his extradition. You meant you did mention he was detained in Cabo Verde there for a year. And then that whole argument as to whether he was going to be extradited to the United States or not. And then it should be mentioned he was extradited to the US, though there is no extradition treaty between the US and Cabo Verde. And even though Cabo Verde will find an exception to that, will sometimes extradite someone without an extradition treaty, but only if the requesting country in this case the US agrees to reciprocate, that is to send someone upon Cabo Verde's request and the US made it clear, oh, no, we're not ever doing that. So, you know, the legalities here, we're not recognized under any... No, it's the one way street. Do as we say, not as we do. So before I let you go, Dan, what's next in this case? Alex Saab is going to appeal. He will appeal, so we'll see. It'll go to the 11th Circuit, which again ruled in a good way, at least for Saab in the Saudi Arabian case. We'll see if they find a way to distinguish that case here. And then if it could go to the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, my guess is in the meantime, it will go forward on the merits of the case against Saab. And they'll go to trial on those issues.  And they're going to make sure even if he wins ultimately, he's going to spend many years in prison. And that is a shame and a sad thing because I think he was doing something good for the Venezuelan people. And he's going to pay the price for that. Reminds me of this. I was told as a young lawyer, Dan, no good deed goes unpunished. I laugh. It's not funny. Sometimes you learn that. Alex Saab is learning that the hard way. Yeah. Yeah. He's, you know, he's stuck in a war in an economic, you know, and he has the key to free himself.  Believe me, they'd let him go, but he won't do it. He's a man of principle. He's Remind Loyal, which is really very, very impressive. Yeah. So I would love to have you come back. Yes, this case, you know, progresses as we go, you know, go further. It's been, this is the third episode we've done focused on Alex Saab's case. And it, I mean, it's a really, it's pretty horrifying, actually. Yeah. And he has a family. He has kids. Both of his parents died while he was in Cabo Verde.  And it's very sad. It is very sad. Well, that's the message, isn't it? That's the message to anybody else who may be interested in helping or in particularly, you know, working around US imposed sanctions, sanctions warfare. It has to be called warfare. That's what it is. So we'll have you back as this progresses. It's always so great to have a conversation with you. I want to remind the audience you've been watching what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. We're a popular resistance broadcast, and we are live typically on Thursdays, 430 p.m. Pacific, 730 p.m. Eastern. You can find us on the Convo Couch, Code Pink Action, and popular resistance for YouTube channels. And if you miss us live on YouTube, be sure to catch us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. So okay, everyone, we'll see you next week. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Peace.


Hello friends and how are you all doing today? It says, if y is equal to tan inverse bracket 1 plus x square in the square root plus under root 1 minus x square upon under root 1 plus x square minus under root 1 minus x square, fine dy by dx. So here we are given y as tan inverse bracket under root 1 plus x square plus under root 1 minus x square upon under root 1 plus x square minus under root 1 minus x square. We need to find dy by dx, fine dy by dx, right? So here we can put x square as cos 2 right on doing so we have y is equal to tan inverse under root 1 plus 2 theta plus under root 1 minus cos 2 theta upon under root 1 plus cos 2 theta minus under root 1 minus cos 2. We know that 1 plus cos 2 theta is equal to 2 cos square theta, right? And 1 minus cos 2 theta is 2 sine square theta, right? On using it we have y is equal to tan inverse bracket under root 2 cos square theta 2 sine square theta. So we have tan inverse under root cos theta upon under root cos theta theta minus in the denominator we have root 2 sine. On taking out root 2 common from numerator and denominator and on cancelling them we have y is equal to tan inverse cos theta plus sine theta cos theta minus sine theta.  On differentiating both the sides with respect to x we have dy by dx equal to dy dx of pi by 4 1 by 2 cos inverse x. So we have dy by dx equal to derivative of a constant is 0 plus this will give us 1 by 2 minus 1 upon under root 1 minus x square is r x itself so it will be x raised to the power 4 into derivative of x square which is we have dy by dx equal to minus x upon under root 1 minus x raised to the power 4 and this is a required answer to this question. So hope you understood it well and enjoyed it too have a nice day ahead.


2022 has been the year of living dangerously.  It is a time when good democratic governance should be coveted, defended, embraced, but the facts tell us a different story. International Ideas Global State of Democracy report 2022 does not make for pretty reading. The report shows that the quality of democracies declining in half of democracies around the world, while the number of countries with the most severe form of democratic erosion, what we call backsliding, is at its peak. The problems are widespread. The undermining of credible election results, increased restrictions on online freedoms, ever more bracing autocrats, pervasive corruption and the rise of extreme right parties. Democracies are being subverted from the outside but also and fundamentally eroded from within. We are all at risk of losing our hard-won freedoms and buying into the false promises of autocracy. No country is immune to these threats. Still, even in the face of ominous trends, there are rays of hope. People are not standing still. Just think about the global youth activism on issues ranging from climate change to indigenous rights. Look at the protesters risking their lives to press for basic freedoms in Iran. Remember those opposing autocracy in Myanmar. The energy of civil society still shines brightly, but they can't fight this fight alone. Never before has there been such urgency for democracies to respond, to show their citizens that they can forge new, innovative social contracts that bind together rather than divide people. I urge you to read this report. It is our contribution to fostering transparency and debate while encouraging solutions that reinvigorate democracy. It is time to remember that democracy matters, that it's worth fighting for, that together we can do what's required to relaunch the democratic project and preserve it for the next generation.


Every area of our life is attached to money and Satan knows if he can get to our money, he can control many areas of our life. And it's important to understand and to have the same attitude at the very least that Satan had towards our finances. That he wants to, Bible says he came to still kill, destroy, to take from us to a very least that we would have the kind of attitude towards our finances to fight for them and to make sure that the blessing of God rests upon our financial life in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. I want to read the scripture from 2 Kings, if you can open that chapter 4 verse 1 through 6. We're going to read the story and we're going to go from this story and just draw a few lessons. So let me just read the whole 7 verses.  So Elijah said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, your mid-servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil. And he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all of your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not gather just few. And then when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons, then pour into all the vessels that you set aside, and set aside the full ones. So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured it out and came to pass when the vessels were full, then she said to her sons, bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is no other vessel, so the oil ceased.  So here's the story that we just read. A woman has a financial trouble. And I want you to see something that her husband and her, they were servants of God. And Bible clearly states here that they feared the Lord, yet it didn't stop them from being in financial trouble. Point number one is this, that you can be born again Christian, yet you can be afflicted in your area of finances. You can be a born again, loving, serving Christian, a good-hearted person, yet you can be afflicted in your area of finances. Salvation of your soul doesn't automatically make you a prosperous person. We see that this woman, she was a God loving, God fearing woman, God fearing family. And we see that he was even a prophet, or a son of prophet, he was in the school of prophets with Elijah. He was a man of God, yet even that itself didn't stop financial troubles in his life. So we have to understand that just because we are Christians and born again, it doesn't automatically qualify us, it does qualify us, but it doesn't automatically make us a prosperous person. We have to understand the spiritual principles and have to have the right kind of approach and understand how to get to the place, to the promised land in our financial area, as God promised to us. We see that another story of Israelites, they were God's people. They were in covenant with God, yet they were enslaved in Egypt and they were poor. They were slaves while having a promise, from a promised land that flowed with milk and honey. There was Pharaoh, they were suppressing them, they were holding them captive and they were holding their finances, and they could not prosper and they could not go above and beyond until Moses came and delivered them out of Egypt and brought them into the promised land. We have to understand is that positionally we are blessed. Now we have to take the position, the legal position that we have in Christ Jesus, and have to make it practical in our life. One of the things, and I'm not going to cover all things, but I'm just going to cover a few things, is that if we have a financial curse over our life, what is a financial curse? It's when you are taking two steps forward with your finances and one step back.   And there could be something in spiritual world that's holding you back from advancing forward. It's kind of like being in a, have you seen those sailing boats? Being in a sailing boat yet rowing your life through. You're using all your efforts to get through yet the ways of life keep pushing you backwards.  You have to understand that you can't fight spiritual force with physical effort.  And this is exactly what we're going to do today at the end of the service as we're going to pray. Two things I want to address, and there's a few other things, but two main things that I want to address. The brain's financial curse in our life is stealing. Stealing from God and stealing from people. Those two things, and I'll bring an example, how those two things they rub our life, a financial blessing that God has in store for our lives. Stealing from God in Malachi chapter 3 verse 89 says this, Will a man rob God yet you have robbed me? But you say in what have we robbed you in ties and offerings?  When we do not give to God what belongs to him, actually not give. When we do not return to God, that's the word that we use in the scripture, because tithe is not serious trying to help me preach. When we do not return to God what is his, which is 10% of our income. Bible says you are cursed with the curse and you can't prosper. When we withhold tithes from God, we will not prosper in advance in our life. As we just watched the testimony of an owner of Hobby Lobby, we see, and he says that his success is directly tied to giving, to giving God, and giving not only just the tithe but above and beyond. If we don't tithe, that's what the Bible says, it's not what I came up in, it's not charismatic theory, and it's not charismatic doctrine, it's what God says, God's word says, that if you don't tithe, you rob me. And in our lives we have to examine our life and we have to see, if we want to prosper in our life, we want to succeed, if we want to move forward in life, we have to honor God with 10% of our income. And 10% goes into the house of God. Number two, stealing from people brings financial curse over our life. In Scripture in Matthew chapter 5 verse 23 to 26, Bible says that if your neighbor has something against you while you're going to bring sacrifice to God, you must reconcile with your neighbor as soon as possible so that the judgment doesn't come against you. I'm just paraphrasing, you can read the Scripture, Matthew chapter 5 verse 23 to 26. When we steal from people, we cause a financial pain to them.  And that includes not just necessary people, that includes lying in our taxes, that includes lying in different places, that's lying, living on welfare while you claim to have no income, yet you're writing on Cadillac, you're working for cash, you're not reporting anything. I mean, we're talking about some real things.  There was a story of this lady that I heard a few years back and this lady was at the conference and she had a severe case of cancer. Practically doctors gave her no chance to survive and she came to this conference to receive prayer for healing because during that conference it was a pastor of Vladimir's Mantean, one of his college of Moses and they pray and he has an anointing and grace for healing of cancer. And so as she came to receive prayer and receive healing she was staying there and she was listening to the teachings and every time they would pray for healing people left and right would get healed, yet she would not get healed. And she would ask God, why can I get healed? I mean, I can feel it right there, I can almost touch it, but yet it doesn't touch me and I don't get healed. And one of the sessions there was a teaching on similar things, on stealing and how you spill financial blood and you have to repent for it. And she remembered, Holy Spirit brought to her remembrance a story from like 20 years ago when she was working in a hospital and she was one of those coat hangers lady that would hang the coats and one time as she was hanging the coat she saw there was money in the coat and she took that money, she stole that money. And then when the person received her coat back and it was a single mom, she was saying hey whoever, maybe you saw some money fell out as you were storing the coat, maybe you saw the money or you've seen somebody take it, please tell me this is the only money that we have to survive for the week with me and my children, please help us. And she was really in distress, was almost crying and this lady, she's the one that took it and she felt embarrassed and she did not come forward and didn't give back the money and said I took it and I'm sorry, here's your money back and she didn't do that and she just kind of left and the lady left and now 20 years later this lady is suffering with cancer and God reminds her, says look this lady was in dire need of that money and you took it from her and said repent and I will heal you. And so it was 100 rubles that she took at that time she said God as a sign of my repentance she repented and I was God for forgiveness and said as a sign of my repentance I'm taking this money, tell me who to give it to I'm not going to give it to them and as she did that right there in the spot she received healing she said I felt light in my body she went next day to the doctor and doctor confirmed that she was cancer free let's put our hands together for Jesus anytime you steal you invoke curse over your life if you want to prosper in your life you have to make sure that your past your life is clean from theft I remember when I heard this story and I was praying to God and asking God for certain breakthroughs in my life I have a dream, I have a goal, I have a vision where God promised me to take me in my financial life and I felt like there was this like wall that I was hitting and I couldn't break through and I was asking God what is there what else do I have to do I was giving, I was tidying I was going beyond giving and tidying and I know that the blessing of God belongs to me and I must live in that blessing and as I was praying I was asking God I was actually listening to this testimony that I shared it impacted me so much and I said God is there anything in my life that I did wrong and I know I did but in anything specific that you want me to repent of and change and as I was praying that the Holy Spirit remind me I used to when my early teens years I know it's again Goodwill's story but I used to steal from Goodwill and so it's a silly and funny now but I mean I just walk in there and roll a blade out you know go in there and walk out with the basketball and it sounds stupid and silly as something teenagers would do but as I was praying God really convicted my heart and said you did a lot and you need to repent for it and you need to make amends and I was like well ok God I'm sorry I forgive me wash me with your blood and I did a prayer of repentance but God kind of prompted me he said you have to make amends now the repentance has to be with action with back with actions and so I was like ok God what do you want me to do and so kind of in my mind every time that I stole from Goodwill I could remember I kind of calculated things added some interest on top so I came to about $500 that I thought that I need to return and so I talked to my wife she said well whatever you need to do I wrote out a check for $500 went to that place where I used to steal from that place was closed went to another store to Goodwill asked for the manager manager was kind of shocked why I wanted to talk to her I told her the story I gave her the checks I would you accept it and she was like standing there what's going on she was lost for words I never had that happen she starts calling store employees I'm like oh God here it goes public repentance just give me the calm system and let me just repent through the whole store calm system but it was an embarrassing moment but it was a moment that I had to do and I felt like something shifted in my spirit the thing is that what happened is shortly after that my wife gets a promotion in her line of work where her income her salary doubles she's on salary versus just by hour and gets much better benefits and things start rolling forward things start going things start going financially forward so I want to tell you that if you have certain things in your life as I'm speaking to you now and Holy Spirit is convicting you of those things you have to make amends if possible I ask God for forgiveness and you have to make amends your repentance have to be with action so that you can make things right before you and God so there's nothing in spiritual world crying out against you remember when Cain killed Abel and God said to Cain his blood is crying out against you anytime we hurt somebody we cheat somebody we lie to our boss we lie on our time cards every time we cause losses to someone financially that financial blood is spilled in spiritual world it's crying out against you and when you come in here saying God bless me God says there's things standing against you in spiritual world that you have to resolve and that you have to fix so we're going to pray today and we're going to ask God to forgive us but if Holy Spirit is nudging on you and touching you and asking you to do something you have to follow through you have to obey because blessing is hidden in obedience not necessarily in action itself amen Jesus hung on a cross to remove our sin to remove the curse of sin and if there's any kind of any kind of poverty curse of our life any kind of setback any kind of anything in spiritual world that's holding us back we're going to come against in the blood of Jesus there's power in the cross the Bible says cursed is the one who hangs on the tree Jesus hung on the tree as a sign of taking our curse so that in our area in every area especially in the area of finances we could live life of prosperity and not life of bondage and curse amen church let's put our hands together for Jesus Christ point number 2 God will use what you have to give God will use what you have to give you a miracle when this widow came to when this widow came to the prophet and she started asking prophet for help we notice we see that prophet doesn't just goes out and starts handing free things out he asks her what do you have of sales value if you read amplified version he's asking her what do you have of sales value what do you have in your house that I can use that God can use in a sense you have to understand if you want to live a prosperous life if you have to live a life of breakthrough God will use what you have not what you wish to have God will use the current talent the gift the time that you have to bring prosperity and breakthrough in your life many people they they settle for what they for the life that they have because they say well I don't have that education I didn't go to that college I don't have that type of degree well I don't have connections God is not asking you what you don't have God is asking you of what do you have give it to me so I can work with it we have to be able and we have to be willing to submit to God the little things that we have so he can do the miracle in our lives if you have a little bit of time pick up to pick up another course maybe at local college or maybe you have time to devote some time to read books to acquire some knowledge to enhance your to enhance your knowledge and so that you can begin to do something either with business or whatever begin to use the little that I have maybe God has given you an idea to do business maybe it's a small thing maybe it's not what you wish to have but it's what you have right now start working on it start utilizing what you have so that then God can bless you with much more many people fail to start because they underestimate the little that they have so therefore they don't start with anything at all Bible says that he who has more will be given and he who doesn't have even what he has will be taken from him that we work on increasing our resources that very little that we have because the more that we have the more knowledge that we gain the more experience that we gain the more we work on a gift and a talent that God has placed in us the more God will be given given to us we see that we read in a scripture where the widow she gathered as many as she could and as many as she gathered God filled it that what she didn't gather God didn't bother to fill let's not live in an imaginary world thinking that I'm gonna watch Netflix as much as I want I'm gonna surf internet and I'm gonna be on social media as much as I want I'm gonna sit on the couch eat potato chips and watch TV shows and dramas and then I'll come to Good News Church and confess I'll claim it grab it and I'm gonna become a millionaire tomorrow that's not the way it happens you provide God resources God takes it multiplies it God takes it and fills it you provide God an idea you provide God business he fills that one you open another one God fills that one you go and take some you go take extra classes get another diploma or get another certification you apply for another job God takes it and fills it whatever you provide for God God will fill it God is God of no limits whatever you provide he fills it whatever you don't he doesn't have to fill it he has no room to fill it many people neglect this principle or or God has a promise for them like for Israel to capture all this land to have all this promise but Israel just settled for a little God said well if you want this much and now we see as a result of it Middle East is in conflict because all these areas where that is in conflict right now should have been Israel's land should have been their territory same thing with us God can give us a big promise God can give us a promise of prosperity of being having more than enough being able to do things that we're not able to do being able to sponsor orphanage being able to build wells in the third world country being able to build churches being able to build hospitals being able to do great things but if we don't take those steps with God if we don't go out and take a risk and collect those vessels if we don't begin to prepare so that God can fill it then God will never fill it we have to do what we can do from our part you pray as everything depends on God and your work as everything depends on you God brings us and takes us into the life of prosperity that's how we're able to not just kind of get a little bonus check and get happy and that's it this is how we get in the rhythm of revival in our finances as we as we keep supplying God keep supplying God the resources to fill them couple couple months ago couple months ago I was praying here walking back and forth and once again we need to run in each other 28 and declaring those things blessings over my life I have an image and picture that God gave me where I want to be with my finances and where I want to be financially and it's definitely not there I'm much further ahead where I was but it's not where I want to be and not where God wants me to be and I have some projects that are no works and they're great and once they go through there's going to be a lot of good financial income and a lot of people will definitely set up for that and say this is good enough for me but I'm always pushing envelope with God and I always want to go as far as God will let me go and as I was praying I said God these things are great and they'll get me definitely to the next level but where I want to be these things will not get me there I need a next level I need a completely different idea I need something that will launch me into that sphere of things and as I was praying as I was praying it was couple of days that I was meditating and praying on that God gave me this one idea with that has to do with stock options that I used to do before I kind of abandoned it but it was a little bit different direction and I began to see how I could help that businessman that has a lot of commodities and that how I could help him to bring a significant addition of his cash flow in his business and so as I start working I start making some focus figuring out if what I'm thinking of doing or wanting to do is actually possible and then figuring out that this actually this actually can work and it will work if it's done this way and that way and then when I give them a call and I said hey you know what I want to talk to you about your business I think I can definitely increase cash flow in your business by significant amount and this and that and laid it out and then when I went and met with them and presented the strategy modified a few things and then more business opportunities opened up and this is how in reality in practicality it works this is how God takes you from one level into another and begins to increase you suppose I ignore that prompting suppose I kind of said well this is just too crazy I mean these people are not reachable to me they're way in a different level than I am you know when I get there then maybe I can talk to them and suppose I ignore that the possibility of what's possible now would never been possible and so we as people of God we pray we come against any demonic influence over our finances any demonic curse and we open up our resources we utilize sometimes God will drop a thought for a business sometimes God will drop a thought for an invention sometimes it's not necessarily your business sometimes God will give an idea how to improve somebody else's business by improving that you're going to get compensated and you're going to open a whole new level of resources available to you and God can take you from one level to another level in your financial life in Jesus mighty name and the last point I want to close on this what God works in you you must work out she came to you and said God did this miracle oh my gosh God we got bunch of jars of oil in my house we barely have room to sleep I'm just paraphrasing it here adding a few callers and what should I do with it and he tells her now go take that what God did in your private what God deposited in your spirit the idea that God gave you and laid on your heart now go work it out now go make it work it out go and sell it and he says pay your debts give off of it for you and your children work in work out what God has worked in when you come to church that's why it's so important to come to church that's why it's so important to come to home groups the classes that we do so that you can receive from God so you can receive ideas so you can receive inspirations so you can receive that impartation from God and when you leave don't just let it stay here when you go out to business take it to your home group take it to your family take it to your loved ones begin to work out what God works in see the story of wise and foolish men wasn't that they didn't they did not attend church they didn't hear the word is that one decided to take that word and go and work it out build a solid foundation the other one just decided to keep it in God working on in you on inside of you today that you're failing to work out because you have to understand first time it comes it's strong like I gotta do this there's motivation and there's grace to do it if you keep waiting it gets dimmer and then eventually the voice is silent and that idea that potentially could have yielded financial breakthrough in your life that could have yielded restoration of your family that could have yielded a new job opportunity it could have yielded something good in your life you didn't act on it you didn't work it out and it fades away and it's done work in what God has worked work out what God has worked inside of you God said to Israel go and capture the promised land they start whining you know all these there's giants there's walls and then and God and finally they decided they're gonna capture the promised land but the moment was gone and they God said no it's too late now you're gonna walk around the mountain for 40 years and only your next generation will capture it will capture the promised land when God prompts us whether it's we need to do right now asking God for forgiveness for financial theft and then making some amends or whether it's acting on some idea whether it's acting on some kind of prompting act when God speaks because the promptings don't stay for long they fade and then you're gonna have to work on your physical efforts while there is grace while there is wind open your sails up to God and work out what God has worked in on inside of you how many received something this morning