Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 5/4/26: Israel Uses Gaza Strategy In Lebanon, Epstein Suicide Note, China Screw You To US Sanctions

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Krystal and Saagar discuss Israel uses Gaza strategy in Lebanon, Epstein suicide note coverup, China screw you to US sanctions.   Richard Wolff: https://www.youtube.com/@RichardDWolff/videos Trita Parsi: https://x.com/tparsi?s=20    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breaking points.com. Turning now to Israel, just checking in on what's going on there. Don't forget that we started this entire thing with the Iran War, so who's ascendant right now in Israeli society? Here we have Itmar Ben-Gavir. Let's go ahead and put this up here on the screen, Israel's national security minister. He was presented by his wife for his 50th birthday, a cake on which you can actually see a noose. a gallows. So that's how they celebrate in that family. Seems really healthy. Definitely a reflection of a very loving marriage and of the values that you would want to inculcate. Yeah. And this is specifically

in honor of his successful ability to get past the law that sentences all Palestinian. I mean, they're effectively, you know, hostages in this sham system where they have no hope of being exonerated even if they committed no crimes. But they all get sentenced to the death penalty. Do, you know, Jewish Israelis get sentenced to the death penalty for similar, quote-unquote, terrorist crimes? No, they do not. So that's what this cake is celebrating. So it's not just the spirit. There is a substance.

No, yeah. There is a death cult substance behind it. And you'd be hard-pressed to think of a more openly genocidal society than the modern-day Israel. I just think it's crazy that, I mean, look, I don't think all Israelis even necessarily agree with this. I think that, you know, there's probably a decent. number who would be horrified, but what I find crazy is that this does not lead to, this does not lead to any sort of like open reflection. Because even if you were going to have this ideology, this type of celebration, wouldn't you want to hide it a little bit? Like would you want really

to telegraph it, I think, you know, to everybody about your open like intent? It's just nuts, I think, broadly. So let's go to C2 because this is how that connects with what's actually happening on the ground, Lebanon. Remember, this is from the New York Times, actually did a very good job here. They say Israel said it's applying the Gaza model in Lebanon. This is what the devastation like. So they had some drone footage and cameras that actually went through these different Lebanese areas. And the reason why I think this is so important is that with Lebanon, there's no even similar pretext like there was with, there was no October 7th. There were rockets that were fired by Hezbollah. So Israel comes in to north, into, uh, southern Lebanon and basically says, okay, everybody below the Latani

river, you've all got to go. Basically indefinitely, we will not allow anybody to say we're going to demolish everything in that area, applying the Gaza playbook, but for a very, very different incident. And remember, this is not even in, I mean, I guess you could call Gaza a disputed territory. This is a sovereign nation. They just invaded it, basically took it over, destroyed a decent portion of all of it, and said, yeah, we're here now. We're going to stay for as long as we need to. First, you know, a security perimeter. They've even declared that they won't even allow people, you know,

to build homes in the south near within rocket firing range. And you're like, okay, and all of this with the tacit and basically open support of the United States. So this was nearly a million people or so that seem to have been affected by this or could be affected in the long enough front, which definitely tens of thousands in the immediate term with many of these villages, hundreds of people were killed. Beirut itself, many of it were, much of it was bombed. They said they were targeting all of this infrastructure, but it's the same playbook as what happened in Gaza. And yet this time, it's not even nearly as much outrage when in my opinion, look, I actually think it might be more outrageous because you have this precipitating

event of Hezbollah firing rockets. Okay, you can strike them from Air Baseball. They're like, no, we're going to invade. We're going to demolish. They had those photos that came out of the guy beating the Jesus statue. I mean, you know, what was it the Shia thing? I forget off the top of my head. They warned Christians not to hide Shia Muslims. They were like openingly telling me, like, hey, anybody who's Shia, they got to go.

Like, hey, you're not allowed to hide any Shia. You're like, what the hell? You know, I mean, this is out in the open in terms of how they're acting. Oh, and just so you guys know, the initial buffers, zone, oh, then they would expand it. And then they would expand it even more. And they basically have openly said, we're not leaving. Like, we're not leaving, period. And then, you know, I don't know, we all go, everyone in Washington goes crazy over this crazy idea that maybe we should tell them, like, hey, maybe stop doing that because it's actually creating more problems in terms of our ceasefire

with Iran. So, yeah. I don't know. You put it all together. You can just see how this has now normalized beyond just Gaza, how it's already creating major problems here for America. And, I mean, do you really think they're going to stop? They haven't even stopped in the middle of the ceasefire. No. Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes and conflagration. So if this doesn't completely end, then how are we ever going to get some sort of a settlement in the future? And this is just how they are now. They're open. They're emboldened by this. And they're just going to continue doing this until we just tell them to stop. And we just won't do it. I don't get it. That's absolutely the case. And to your point about the targeting of Shia Muslims, the predominantly Christian villages have been damaged, but not nearly to the extent of the devastation of the Shia Muslim dominant villages, which have just been utterly decimated.

And in the VO that we were showing you earlier from the New York Times, one of the images was of them destroying these solar panels. And you might think, well, why is that significant? It's because Israel, of course, they claim, and the New York Times, you know, credibly reprints this stuff too. even in this article, which did important journalistic work. Oh, well, they claim they're targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. Please tell me how freaking solar panels that just provide electricity to a town could possibly be, quote, unquote, Hezbollah infrastructure. And so once they were called out on that, oh, we're going to discipline them, oh, this isn't how we operate. Bullshit.

We can all see the images of the way that you are applying the very same Gaza model now to Lebanon. And it's clear why, because they got away with it in Gaza. Not only did they get away with it, they're still getting away with it in Gaza. So they, you know, rightfully think there are going to be no consequences for this. We can do what we want. Now, I will say, Hezbollah has proven to be more dangerous and tenacious than they expected. They have these fiber optic drones that have been used to, you know, significant effect against the IDF. The IDF has not been able to advance all the way.

to the Latani River in all sections, which had been the original goal. When we talked to Shaill last week, he was talking about how they're kind of like pinned down in this one area. And they can't really advance, but they're not being allowed to retreat. So in some ways, they're kind of sitting ducks for, for a hosbola forces, which is why they've sustained some significant damage. Yeah, they have had some significant casualty numbers. But in any case, back to the point about Gaza and how they got away with it, well, now they're public. new maps and creating every day new realities on the ground where they now control two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this report, I believe is this Reuters,

yeah, this is the Reuters report about how Israel has expanded control now to two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Israel has quietly been expanding its control of Gaza. It has sent new maps to aid groups, sources said, which have not been released publicly. The latest version shows a freshly restricted area marked out with an orange line. It extends beyond the Yellow Line zone occupied by Israeli troops agreed in the U.S. brokered October ceasefire. Reuters acquired the maps and shared them with Palestinian researchers in the occupied West Bank. Jad Isaac, who heads up the Applied Research Institute, Jerusalem, says the new line shows Israel now controls nearly two-thirds of Gaza. Israel says the orange line sets out a restricted zone where aid groups must coordinate their movements

with the military. It's to enable, quote, humanitarian activity while safeguarding personnel in a complex operational environment, according to Kogat, the Israeli military agency that controls access to Gaza. But thousands of Gaza families are now caught between the lines. Residents say they lack water and other supplies because aid groups are scared to send staff there. At least three Palestinians working with foreign aid groups have been killed in the new restricted zone. Israel's military said it had opened fire after identity. identifying threats near the Yellow Line. Oshawa says residents are also regularly being killed and wounded in the area.

He says they aren't given warning when the line shifts. According to Kogat, the Orange Line boundaries are updated, according to operational assessments. It declined to comment on the frequency of updates or whether it communicates them to Palestinian civilians. And if you read or see videos of day-to-day life for Palestinians in Gaza, it's just absolutely horrifying. I mean, you can imagine, right? You've had all of these years at this point of bombing and destruction and attacking, you know, wastewater treatment plants and any sort of basic

infrastructure. So you have rats that are running rampant. You have disease that is spreading. It's just absolutely miserable. People have been living in these tents for God knows how long have been displaced so many times. These poor children, it's just absolutely horrifying. And I wanted to read a little bit of what Shiel put out actually on Twitter this morning. He said, says Israel's planning its operation to finish the genocide in Gaza. The pretext is that Hamas is rebuilding and will not disarm. Of course, Israel refused to negotiate sincerely over the future of Gaza process, which would involve that discussion. He goes on in terms of, you know, making his case why he thinks they're getting ready to go back to this more aggressive offensive. He says there are

currently six brigades operating in Gaza. Troop rotations indicate preparations for a prolonged intensive presence. The paratroopers brigade is set to replace a reserve brigade and the two 205th Brigade known as the Iron Fist recently completed its sixth combat rotation since the war began. So he sees all the indications that that is the direction that they are heading in. And, you know, as the world moves on and is focused on Iran, is now focused somewhat on Lebanon, they continue the killing. They continue to seize more territory. And Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer in absolutely miserable conditions. But to Shail's point, Zagher, when that original ceasefire deal was struck, those more difficult questions about disarmament, what the

future would look like, they were pushed off to the next phase. The Board of Peace. And there was supposed to be negotiations over what that next phase looked. And that just never happened. So Israel is able to effectively do whatever they feel like doing. Right. And why even spend time on this? Because this is going to dramatically affect the situation with Iran. If you are Iran, I mean, this is honestly, even the current ceasefire, I still don't really get it from their perspective. at all. But this is evidence where you can see in the very near term of how the U.S. and Israel have conducted themselves whenever they sign a peace deal and they say they're not going to do X, Y, and Z. This is probably part of the reason why they're going so hard in their current

negotiations and they're not buckling because they can see directly, they're like, hey, we really can't take these people's word for it unless we have it explicitly in writing. And even then, we need immediate, like, steps to make sure that they can't restart hostilities against us if they were to want to. So I think. I think, you know, putting this stuff all together is important because these actions between Gaza, Lebanon, and others are having a direct follow-on effect on how the Iranians are negotiating with the United States and with Israel, obviously, because they're counterparty to this. You know, we do want to also shout out the level of derangement here in the United States.

So let's go to the next one. This is the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. he did a long screed against the New York Times. And Tucker Carlson, who recently put out like a two-hour podcast in it, he says, Tucker accused me of advocating for killing of children and civilians, asked to respond. I sent the following for the New York Times. Poor Tucker needs help. He's clearly circling the drain by saying something so outrageous. No sane person advocates for the murder of children or civilians.

Even the allegation is sick and evil. Tucker limits his compassion to the unfortunate souls who have died in Gaza. died in Gaza. Yep, of the result of the stubborn and good, good, great call. Of the stubbornness of Hamas to release hostages who murder their own citizens and intentionally put them in front of military assets. One never hears Tucker lament the massacre and mutilation of 1,200 women, babies, and elderly people butchered by Hamas on October 7th, or the torture, rape and starvation of the 251 hostages taken and held by Hamas.

I am heartbroken by the slaughter of innocent civilians wherever they are, whoever they are. Tucker's irrational hatred of Jews in general in Israel, in particular, binds him to the horrific savagery inflicted upon the victims of October 7, including the rape of women in front of their children, to beheading at babies in the presence of their mothers, or setting fire to elderly people who sat in wheelchairs and were burned alive, all of which were captured on video, taken by Hamas terrorists who were so proud of their despicable acts

that they wore GoPro cameras to record it as if they were taking movies of a dance recital. Okay, so taking that all in totality, and, you know, the highlighted portion, which was put out in a, in kind of a debunking on Twitter. And this is always uncomfortable because this idea that we're going to sit here and say that 1,200 people didn't die on October 7th is ridiculous. No one's going to say that.

It was literally on video. Much of it was published. They were massacred, slaughtered, many of them. Now, there was some other stuff that happened on that day as well in terms of the failures of the Israeli military and then their own actions. But let's even put that all to the side. Many civilians were killed horrifically on October 7th.

However, many of the claims that they had made had, you know, in the initial days of the war, did not hold up to scrutiny. And for this, you have to look no further than Israeli media. That's why, you know, I don't even cite necessarily drop-sighted and right. Not that I don't love those guys. But when I have to get into this argument with people who will often give me, you know, these similar lines, I go, listen, Harats did the, did the work. There's no evidence, right? Especially in the beheaded babies. That was probably the most, like, cited claim in the initial days of the war, of barbarism. And there's plenty of other things that you could have also picked to, which are true, by the way.

But on that particular one, like, Haretz and others in the Israeli media went through systematically. Now, people say, why do you spend so much time doing this? Well, like in this particular case, let's say with Huckabee, like you were justifying war, for example, let's say actions of the Israeli military in Gaza, specifically on the basis of many of these types of claims. All you have to do is point to the acknowledge and real evidence, I think of what happened on October 7th, which is plenty enough. I don't think it justifies their response, but this just demonstrates, I think, the level of which they have to resort to also point fingers at their ideological enemies, right? Yes. I mean, yeah, it feels really gross to do this, but just as a point of fact, there were no babies beheaded, none.

There were none baked in ovens. The claim that has been made that Hamas used rape as a weapon of war, that claim has not been substantiated. What has been substantiated is the way Israel uses rape as a weapon of war. But funny, I haven't heard Mike Huckabee speak out about that, of which we have far more evidence and proof from our great ally Israel. And there's a very specific reason why these claims were pushed in the wake. of October 7th. And Adam Johnson just published a book, How to Sell a Genocide, which focuses in specifically on liberal media and the role that they played. The New York Times in particular, but New York Times, CNN, MSMBC, all of them in combined enough time for Biden and for Netanyahu to conduct this ethnic cleansing and genocidal campaign. And one of the very early efforts that was made was to portray, Palestinians in general, Hamas specifically, as these absolute barbarians that you could never have a ceasefire with, you could never have a peace deal with that it's just absolutely impossible.

And so that's why they invented these very specific claims about rape used systematically as a weapon of war, about beheaded babies, about baking babies in ovens, etc. That is the reason. They wanted to portray them as these bloodthirsty maniacs, animals, as the, Israelis were describing them in order to justify what they knew was going to be a horrific campaign of war crime after war crime. So to hear him still at this late date, after this has been thoroughly debunked, I mean, the beheaded baby's thing is just like not true at all. In fact, and again, I hate to say that there was one baby that was killed on October 7th. That's horrific. One baby is horrific enough, right? There were not dozens who were even killed,

let alone none of them beheaded. So in any case, just disgusting to see these lies and propaganda, atrocity propaganda, continuing to be pushed by a significant American official who he and his staff have exercised a lot of influence, apparently, within the Trump administration as well. Experience Harry Styles live in London, England at Wembley Stadium. This is Harry Styles. IR Radio wants to send you in a mate across the pond,

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Kiss all the time, disco occasionally, available now. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory.

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I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill,

waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. One more piece here that they wanted to get in because I do think it ties into the way that Americans have shifted because they've seen all of, they've seen these lies, they've seen through the lies, they've seen the horrors on their own timelines and develop their own opinions about what are. relationship with Israel should be and how we should conduct ourselves in Middle East. So the media outlets, Daily Wire, with their most prominent personality being Ben Shapiro, has really suffered in terms of viewership in the recent, in recent years, really post-October 7th as the public and as conservatives in particular, young conservatives in particular, have shifted away from this view of we should have lockstep support for Israel. And so they just conducted significant layoffs. We don't know exactly how many.

Candice is out claiming like 60%. I have not seen any like solid concrete numbers. There were layoffs for sure. There were significant layoffs. And the number that's been floating around is actually 50%. But none of this has been confirmed. They haven't confirmed it either. But, you know, there's a lot to be said about this.

Number one, first and foremost, like I said, I think the ideological positioning has been a big problem for them. And if you look at the views for Ben's show, in particular, it has just really fallen off a cliff as people are, you know, increasingly, even in the conservative movement, are increasingly having a different view. And then the other piece is just like a sort of like business piece, which is that they built out this huge organization. They wanted to do children's stuff. They wanted to do movies. They did all of that stuff. And, you know, in the non-corporate media, although they, you know, they have corporate

back and they have big billionaire back. whatever. Anyway, it's just very difficult when you have a personality-driven company to build out all of that overhead and make it a sustainable project. So I think you have a confluence of those two things coming to. Yeah, people point to the Ben Shapiro YouTube. Look, I mean, it's a tough business. We've all been in it. I'll say it's not been that tough for us recently, but you know, in general, I don't like to nickel and dime like, oh, he's got 20,000 less subscribers or whatever. He's got 7 million subscribers. Okay. So that's not. like the biggest indication to me.

The biggest indication is the sustained drop over the last three-year period and the fact this company has to do layoffs. Now, why do they have to do layoffs? Because they're over-capital, or because they took in a ton of money, they had this big ambitious agenda, and didn't work, period, right?

It just did not work. And that's very clear, especially as a conservative coalition begins to fracture. And you can especially see it. I mean, Ryan got applause recently at some event with Emily, where he said that they should sanction Israel.

This is a young conservative event. He got a loss. Okay? So that's the reality of what we're living in now. So that's just not really going to cut it. I also think as Trump reaches all-time low unpopularity or is all-time low popularity in the U.S., that the appetite for just like the most like, you know, Trump can do no wrong. Like, oh, but what about the, it's like, bro, gas is $450 a gallon.

I don't need to be hearing about some high school in, I don't know, in Boston, right? Like, you know, it's like, that feels very trite to me right now. The wood college kids aren't selling the way they used to. I'm telling you this as a person who also hates that. But I'm also self-aware enough to say, nobody gives a shit about CRT like curricula in a local Boston school district, while gas is $4.54 a gallon. It's just the truth, right? Like, you know, what is a woman and all that ain't hidden today, in my opinion? It was a very different, a specific period of time. And that's fine. But my point is just like that era of politics and content is just not going to sell in this immediate term.

And their appetite just generally from what I've been able to see, I mean, they have some good reporters and others who really do care about the news. But for a lot, you know, their main driver is going to be that type of stuff. And that's just not, it's not going to click right now, especially, especially with Ben and especially with a lot of the way that they have to try and approach the Trump administration. Because for them, they want influence to, and you can't be openly critical. So they're in a, they're in the same spot as the blue and on guys were when Biden was at his nadir. Remember, like Harry sister, you know, sorry Harry, I know you had on the show and we appreciate you coming on. But my point is like those diehard Biden guys,

they look like idiots. Like in the, and when Biden, especially around the debate and that time period, we're like, bro, what are you doing? Like they had no, their audience, like a lot of, even their own like blue, you know, Democrat audience was like, hey, guys, like, you're really defending Biden a lot here. Like, I'm sorry. like, I just don't agree. So it's just, it's a tale as old as time, I think, in political coverage. He also lost a couple of his biggest, most prominent personalities. Candice obviously left in very, you know, contentious circumstances.

You had Brett Cooper. He will also, you know, went independent and now. I haven't followed that closely, but it seems like she's tried to reposition herself somewhat and have, you know, more of an independent approach in terms of her views on Israel. And, you know, she's got this very young audience. She herself is very young. So she would have more finger on the polls there. etc. So that also shows the limits of what you could do because there's no reason putting aside

whatever personal or ideological conflicts. Once you're as big as can to so-ins, there's just no reason to say that why would you not do your own thing and make your own money and set your own terms and not have to deal with a boss? Why would you not do that? But to your point, Sager, about how the, you know, the woke college kids or the CRT curriculum isn't selling the way it used to. That's actually a point Tucker made in his interview at the New York Times. I don't know if you listen to the whole interview, but he said, he said, listen, I think the only thing people are going to really focus on is economics, because it's getting that dire. You know, whether it's, whether there's AI, obviously with the Iran war, affordability crisis, that that is where the energy is going to be.

And if you aren't focused on that, then people are not going to be interested in what you have to say. And I think he's probably right about that. I just so obvious. I don't think it takes a genius really to figure it out. I mean, at the end of the day, the cultural stuff is what gets your base animated. And then you get the swing voters and others to come on your side to when you convince them that things are going to be better for you, right? I mean, is it the culture can be... This sounds too dismissive and I'm not saying they're not important, but it's almost like a luxury to get to focus on those sorts of debates because if you're just trying to make it

through month to month and like survive and keep the lights on, of course that's going to be your number one concern for us. Totally, yeah. That's why the culture war, the big, the most culture wars that we had in my lifetime was in the 90s because shit was fine. Like, everything was mostly fine. Now, a lot of people will get mad, but that's the truth. Okay, like most of the time, why do you think Lewinsky was such a big scandal? Okay, when the Dow and the S&P are up so high and we're living in the unipolar moment, that's only in this very unique moment in time. Could anybody even pretend to give a shit, you know, with about Ken Starr and Lewinsky in the wall-to-wall coverage? When things are really dire, yeah, nobody wants to hear it. Like whenever we're talking about, you know,

some of these 2022 controversies, I mean, imagine even trying to seriously talk about that right now. We barely have time for, like, vitally important stories because we're in the middle of a global realignment war happening in not only in the Middle East, which is spiking gas to existential levels for American households. That's all anybody is going to want. Imagine covering, like, the racial makeup of the Little Mermaid remake at this point. That's true. Yeah.

That's true. You can see in our own coverage. It's, I mean, it's all war in economics. This is a person who, like, I'm not saying I don't care about this stuff. But, again, I care a lot more about the price of gas and about the ability of my fellow citizens to, like, not die from starvation or something like that than I do about those things. Those are just fights for another day, I think, at the current moment. But if that's all you've got in your quiver, it ain't going to be good for you going forward. And by the way, there's three more years of this shit.

So let's see how much that. Let's see how that works out for said crew. All right, speaking of important stories, which we haven't been able to cover as much as we'd like to. Let's go to Epstein. Experience Harry Styles live in London, England at Wembley Stadium. This is Harry Styles. IHard Radio wants to send you in a mate across the pond

with flights from Virgin Atlantic, hotel from TripCentral.C.A., tickets, and $1,000 cash. Here we got to! Download the free IHartRadio app. Listen to Iheart new music for 10 minutes. Enter to win. Every day is another chance to see Harry Styles.

Very excited to see you with the show. Kiss all the time, disco occasionally available now. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry.

We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO percent on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it, including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack, so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now, so. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most.

important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Turning now to Jeffrey Epstein, shocking piece of news that we've now learned after some seven years. Let's go and put this up here on the screen. Jeffrey Epstein's possible suicide note was hidden from public view. Interesting, huh?

So you've had the release of all of these different Epstein files. He had all this testimony, OIG reports from the Department of Justice. It's been, you know, so many years now, seven years almost to the day since Epstein allegedly killed himself, let's just say died in federal custody. And in all that time period, we did not know this basic fact. A suicide note purportedly written by Epstein in his jail cell has been kept secret now, locked up in a New York courthouse. A cellmate said he discovered the note in July 2019, after,

Epstein was found unresponsive with a strip of cloth around his neck. Epstein survived that incident, but weeks later was found dead in the jail. The note was eventually sealed by a federal judge as a part of the cellmate's own criminal case. That means investigators scrutinizing his death lacked what would have been a key piece of evidence. On Thursday, the Times petitioned a judge to unseal the note, which said it was, quote, time to say goodbye. the cellmate recalled. While Tartu, the cellmate mentioned that note on a podcast last year, the scrawled message has remained hidden from public view,

even at a time of unprecedented transparency. And since December, the Justice Department has released all of these pages, millions of pages of documents. The Times has not seen the note. They can't find it in the Epstein files. The DOJ said the agency had not even seen it. But a cryptic two-page chronology in the records, and this was credit again to the Times for finding this,

became tangled up. The chronology says that the lawyers authenticated the note, though it does not explain how. If it was written by Epstein, the message would provide insights into his state of mind in the weeks before he died hanging from a bunk bed. And the DOJ said that in response to a federal law, they underwent an exhausted effort to collect all the records in that possession. So basically, as of right now, it's not coming out. It's sealed up in this particular case. This guy is now currently serving four life sentences, and he's pursuing an appeal. As long as that's an appeal, it's going to remain sealed.

He, like we said, I mean, he claims it was just a scrawled note, time to say good, I mean, maybe. I don't know. By the way, you know, guy serving four-life sentences and sell with Epstein, okay. No, it's like somebody with, you know. It's a very important detail. So this guy is a former cop who was convicted of drug trafficking and murder of four different people. That's why his sentence is so extensive. So why was he put, why was he Epstein cellmate to begin with is question number one?

is question number one. Number two, it's very, I have a lot of questions about this story, his eyebrow, he's the one who found the note, and they claim, oh, we verify, oh, we confirmed, it was Stoli Epstein's handwriting. Can you see it? No, you can't say it.

But just take our word for it, so I don't know. But interesting reporting from the Times here at the existence of this, you know, if it was released, of course, you could have independent analysis that was done, handwriting confirmation to see whether or not this note was legitimate. Obviously, the content of this alleged suicide note, you know, if he truly did pen a suicide note saying, hey, I'm out of here and thanks for the good times or whatever it is

that this note contains, obviously that would be very significant in terms of helping to affirm or rebut some of the conspiracies around the death of Jeffrey Epstein. So anyway, a lot of questions remain on that one. At the same time, this is crazy. Put D2 up on the screen. Apparently, Republicans are split on the idea of clemency for Galane Maxwell. So you've got Republicans on this House panel who are trying to sell this Bill of Goods that, oh, will grant her clemency, we'll have Trump grant her clemency, and then she will testify and she will hand in all of the perpetrators and it will help us with our investigation.

I mean, of course the victims are, of course this is a disgusting idea. Of course, it's an insane idea because you're going to trust. this lady, she's one of the greatest criminals here in all of this, enabled, all of this abuse, and you're going to set her free? I mean, it is crazy that she's the only one who's in prison, but at least one person is in prison serving jail time for these, you know, horrific crimes that were committed. So in any case, this is the latest line that they're trying to sell of like, oh, it's actually going to be good for the victims if we let Galane Maxwell off the hook here. Crazy. Yeah, I look, I don't really know what's going on. I,

I do know that the House committee, you know, continues some of this work specifically. And by the way, there's been some other Epstein reports, which we again haven't had as much time to. Look, nothing here is too crazy, but they just show, for example, there is still, quote, accountability and other people who have been disgraced by the Epstein affair. It's just that none of them who are being removed or resigning are in our government. Let's go to the next one, please, and put this up here on the screen. This was just from two days ago. Bard's college's president is going to retire after scrutiny of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Leon Botstein, who is president of Bard College for half a century will retire at the end of June.

He didn't mention Epstein except saying he had waited to his announced retirement publicly until the completion of an independent review of his relationship. Now, to be clear, he was not accused of wrongdoing or anything with Epstein, but he was among, quote, a long list of prominent and notable men who maintained friendly relationship with him for years, despite his status as a convicted sex offender, the actual Epstein files show that they had met on multiple occasions, sometimes Epstein arriving at barred by helicopter, and the president had also suggested Epstein be a guest at the 2013 graduation ceremonies that they meet for an opera performance. In addition, he reached out to him weeks after the Miami Herald reporting, saying, quote, I want you to know, I hope you're holding up as well as can be expected, and separately referred to his friendship in at least two emails. Epstein steered $150,000 to him in 2016, which the president

previously said he donated to the college and had also previously denied having any personal relationship with the man. So if Bard College apparently has more independent, end of a review than anybody in the United States government. Yes. Makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. And then finally, big shout out to our friend Pablo Torre, who did a new Epstein, new Epstein revelation on his podcast.

We just wanted to play a little bit of a clip to give him a shout out. Let's take a listen. This one involves Harvard University. What we started with was this 2003 quote about Epstein from Professor Martin Novak, as read by PTFO correspondent, Drew Patel, the managing editor of my old college newspaper. the Harvard Crimson. He is one of the most pleasant philanthropists to deal with, Novak says.

Unlike many people who support science, he supports science without any conditions. There are not any disadvantages to associating with him. And then we unearthed proof of the Jeffrey E. Epstein Fund for Women's Athletics, which was specially earmarked for the women's rugby team, and it had a Harvard Shield and the word Veritas across the top of this confidential document. Although, according to multiple former rugby players we talked to, the team was never informed that the money came from Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, they were told to keep the fund quiet.

But we then showed was how Harvard's 2020 report concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's connections to Harvard University was presented to the public as this thorough self-investigation spanning 250,000 pages of documents. And yet, it did not discuss the Jeffrey E. Epstein. E. Epstein Fund for Women's Athletics or the president of Harvard, who personally solicited it. Lawrence H. Summers. Larry Summers was the ex-Tres treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, who was so close to Epstein that Epstein was calling himself, Summers wingman, as recently as 2018. In fact, Summers rode on Epstein's plane in 2004, ahead of the creation of the Jeffrey E. Epstein Fund for Women's Athletics. And then Summers spent part of his own honeymoon on Epstein Island the next year in 2005.

And if you're wondering what a Harvard spokesperson told us in response to a detailed list of questions, they declined comment. But did point out that Epstein's $25,000 fund for women's athletics became part of a larger donation Harvard eventually made after that 2020 self-report to two organizations supporting victims of human trafficking and sexual assault. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Larry Summers has since told us that Summers was, in fact, interviewed as part of Harvard's 2020 self-investigation, and that Summers' fundraising as Harvard President was done, quote, with the full involvement of the Development Office and the university's legal, financial, and due diligence functions, and quote. And further, all such fundraising happened, quote, prior to Epstein's 2006 arrest, and quote. Nice work there by Pablo. They did a good job, compiling it all together,

disfuthering more of what we know, these elite universities, the cozy little relationships, all these college presidents, how he was always getting together. Now we have a suicide note. So let's see. Let's just say, let's see what it says. We passed it a piece of legislation. Let's put it to bed. Let's release it to the public. And then we can all decide for ourselves what exactly he was trying to say. All right, we got Richard Wolfe standing by. Professor, let's get to it.

in London, England at Wembley Stadium. This is Harry Stiles. IHart Radio wants to send you at a mate across the pond, with flights from Virgin Atlantic, hotel from TripCentral.C.A, tickets, and $1,000 cash. Here we got it. Download the free IHart Radio app. Listen to IHart new music for 10 minutes.

Enter to win. Every day is another chance to see Harry Stiles. Very excited to see you at the show. Kiss all the time, disco occasionally available now. 2%. That is the number. of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness,

fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently influential. inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO percent on the IHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day but just so y'all know I mean at this point

Mark this is the second episode where we've discussed crack so I'm starting to see that there's a through line We also have AIDS on the table right now so Thank you finishing that sentence I don't think there's a more important

year for black people Really? Yeah for me it's one of the most important years for black people in American history Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts

or wherever you get your podcast joining us now to talk about the global economic impacts from the Iran War is Professor Richard Wolfe. He is a professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He's also co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of their syndicated show economic update. Great to see you, Rick. Good to see you, sir. Thank you very much. Both of you. It's a pleasure to be back. Yeah, of course. So I wanted to start with this specific news item, and then we can sort of

broaden out. But this seems very noteworthy from China. We can put E1 up on the screen. This is from our friends over at drop site. They say China invokes blocking statute for the first time. China's Ministry of Commerce has for the first time activated its 2021 blocking rules ordering all Chinese firms and individuals not to comply with U.S. sanctions targeting five independent Chinese oil refineries accused of purchasing Iranian crude. Beijing called the U.S. measure imposed under two executive orders an unjustified and improper use of extraterritorial law. The move puts multinational companies operating in both markets in direct legal conflict, compliance with U.S. sanctions, now risks violating Chinese law and vice versa. Global banks and firms with dollar exposure face secondary sanctions risk if they continue dealing with the affected refineries.

So help us understand, if you could, the significance of this action from the Chinese. Well, my judgment is it's very significant. It marks a change in the way that the Chinese are approaching what has been the American foreign policy now for quite some years. I would summarize, describe that policy as very provocative interferences in a way previous American governments have not felt entitled to do. The Trump administration prides itself on doing what previous governments, didn't do. I mean, the war in Iran is a grosser example of all of that. And what the Chinese have done until now, excuse me, is tiptoe around it, make believe they didn't know about it, urge their banks and others to find evasive ways of getting around it. Now, that is most

of the time enough. Sanctions are a very crude instrument. We have been applying sanctions as a nation, and the United States does that more than any other country on earth. Nobody else is even close. We have been applying sanctions, as folks know, on Cuba, on North Korea, on Russia for years and years and years. And they have found very quickly ways around it. And so they can pretend not to notice and get around it, and no more feathers get ruffled. What the Chinese just did in the clip that you just showed us was to say, if you allow me to paraphrase our president, no more Mr. Nyska. We are not going to tiptoe around you.

We are simply saying to the world, no more, we the Chinese government will not permit our banks to be threatened in this way, to be inconvenienced, to be, it costs us. little to get around sanctions. It's not that it's free. It's a nuisance. But we're not going to allow that anymore, and we're serving notice on the whole world that this is no longer our problem. We are not alone. The Chinese going to figure out how to dance around Mr. Trump. We're, you know, throwing down a kind of gauntlet, if you will, saying, uh, no. And so this raises enormous. question because now the next issue is how seriously will the Chinese government pursue any Chinese or other entity that conforms to what the United States wants and thereby violates what the Chinese just did.

So we'll see, and you know, it's another one of these little, not so little maneuvers around the chess board and we all wonder who's going to yell uncle first. Right now, I have to tell you, though, as an American economist born, worked here all my life and I'm glad about that, that this is embarrassing, that this is not the way international trade ought to be conducted. and it looks to the whole world, my colleagues around the world, including many that are very friendly to the United States, it really looks like a country that can't compete in the old ways, having to do it in these ways. And when you look at it that way, then the sympathy begins to move towards China as being the victim of this change.

and they're all worried that they will be the next victim of the change. And it's shifting the whole world balance in ways that if I were a policymaker would worry me. Professor, let's zoom out more. You just spoke there about China. But what does this mean generally? You were talking there about the international trading system, U.S. dollar hegemony. Like the basis of the American Empire has really rested on its economic might, not just to compel countries, but to do business with a lot of these countries.

When you combine this with the current Iran situation and the level of damage U.S. consumers are taking, for example, let's put the gas price up here now on the screen. We currently have it at $4.45 a gallon at the national average, over $6 a gallon in the state of California. So we're punishing our own domestic economy. We're also doing kind of, like you said, embarrassing ourselves on the international front. Some sort of new order will emerge from this. What's that going to look like? And how's that going to affect us all?

Well, things are going very, very fast, and they're going downhill for the dollar. I don't want to be misunderstood. The dollar is still the most important global currency. But it is nowhere near as powerful, as dominant as it once was. So comforting yourself by saying, well, over 50% of the central banks of the world keep their reserve to back up their own currency in dollars, true enough, but it used to be 80%. And that is a sea change in terms of what is counted as secure. You know, we just crossed a milestone a few days ago when our national debt exceeds our GDP.

That's a usual warning sign. But to whom is it a warning? to the people who lend to the United States, countries, companies, banks, Americans, foreigners, they all now have to ask a question, is this declining role of the dollar something that ought to make me either stop lending to the United States the way we've been doing for the last 30 years or lend but demand a much higher interest payments to companies. for the rising risk of the number one debtor country in the world. And now let me add to that, Iran.

The Gulf countries, the half dozen countries out there, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, all of that, they have taken a shalacking in this war. Americans don't perhaps grasp it, but the Iranians have been extraordinarily successful, far beyond anything that any of us foresaw in damaging American bases in those countries, damaging gas and oil facilities in those countries, those are all key players in what's called the petro dollar system, the fact that for many years oil was priced in dollars, requiring everybody anywhere in the world to have dollars. Wonderful for our country, because everybody has to get their hands on dollars. And if they have dollars and hold them, the nicest way to hold them is to lend

them to the American government because you get interest when you hold your dollar that way. Well, let me just give you a footnote as a strategist. If the United States had had to fight The wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, or anywhere else, with money taxed from the American people to pay for the war, the opposition to those wars would have been greater than anything. We can imagine for obvious reasons. Instead, the whole world lent us the money with which we could fight those wars without taxing our people, we could use the borrowed money. And if you want to really understand the craziness of this, the Chinese who are major lenders to the United States, because they sell us so much stuff

and get so many dollars that they then hold as treasury securities, that the Chinese government, on the other side of every one of those wars, was helping the U.S. pay for the war against which the Chinese were finding. But the craziness of our global economic system makes those things happen. And right now, they are happening to diminish the standing of the dollar. And while it hasn't yet hit us, it will. And if you want a taste of where it's going, then you just have to look at Europe. Europe is a kind of basket case now of where we are going. We're not yet there. We have it in this country, the Europeans don't have, but the Europeans, this morning's headlines all over Great Britain are that the cost of living is literally out of control.

It's as if you showed those statistics you had in front of us a few moments ago, but it covered many, many more commodities than gasoline, and it together was really hurting the standard of living of the mass of the British people. So let's talk a little bit about who is going to triangle here because right now the Iran war is predominantly being engaged as economic warfare. There are some indications this morning. We may be going back to hot kinetic warfare,

but as of right now, it's predominantly economic warfare. You can put this next element up on the screen. This is gas prices. This is the way most Americans will interact with the war. This is from a little while ago. Now the gas prices up a little bit more. for 46th for the national average. And so the bet from Trump is that if they can enforce this blockade against Iran, that's

going to curtail their oil exports, that their economy is really going to struggle. They've been fed this line that their oil wells are going to explode and they're going to run out of storage capacity very quickly and then it's going to be a big problem for the Iranians. And that the U.S., although consumers don't want to pay these prices at the pump, will be able to withstand the economic pressure longer and that it will be less of a problem for the U.S. to deal with than the Iranians. What can you tell us about your assessment of those dynamics? Well, you know, it's a little bit like a problem I had teaching mathematics. The odds are

that there's an immense array of possible outcomes. I mean, the more we use our imaginations, we human beings, the more we can foresee it could go this. this way, it could go that way, and all of that's true. But the job of the brain is to try to focus in on one of the most likely, because you can't prepare for everything, and you have to make choices, and so you do. We live in a country whose leadership, I'm talking now about the Trump people, has been systematically hostile to other forms of energy, and systematically favoring oil, fossil fuels, gas, all of that.

The problem is, when you do that, and you then give to places like Iran a weapon they didn't have before, you really can't be claiming surprise if they use the weapon. They knew, like everybody did, that a quarter of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz.

They can't possibly fight the United States on a military basis. They're an infinitely poorer country, not to mention smaller and all the rest. So they either have to come up with some other kind of weapon, or they're not going to be able to pull off anything in this situation. They'll have to do what Mr. Trump says. They figured it out. He emphasizes oil and gas, and they can control. effectively, the price of that. And so what we're seeing is the screaming of all those in America who thought they had a big

friend in Mr. Trump because he tilted in their direction, their kind of energy, their commodity, the gas-burning automobile that uses it and so forth, not imagining failure of imagination, what kind of vulnerability goes with that. they have now learned. And then what is Mr. Trump going to do? He can't deny that he favored the very energy source that is now being priced out of everybody's range. He's going to tell a story about something that might happen in the future to turn a shortage

of oil into a glut. Is that possible? Yes. Is that likely? No. No, and if you had half of a brain really working at this, you wouldn't take that chance. You wouldn't lopsidedly go to one in the hopes that it would self-correct. And let me warn you, if you're going to play that game, here's something to worry about.

A few days ago, the United Arab Emirates, fourth largest source of oil that we have on this planet, withdrew from OPEC stopped working as it has for decades with the Saudi Arabian-run cartel of that part of the world's oil. Now, long story short, why? Because they don't like being held back. They have a lot of oil. They don't pull it up. They don't sell it because Saudi Arabia holds back oil from what we could have to drive

up the price because they sell that. They're just doing what every monopolist ever did in the history of the world. Nothing new, nothing strange, nothing exceptional. And by the way, with the active support of the United States, which of course doesn't say that to its own people, because otherwise your upset at high gas prices would go to Washington rather than to foreigners upon whom it can be locked. What does the United Arab Emirates want? It wants to bring up the roughly 1.5 to 2 million barrels of oil per day that it could bring up but hasn't been.

Because it has to repair the damage Iran has done to their oil facilities, to the American bases there. The damage of the missiles from Iran is very significant, as it is in Israel. We can keep pretending that it isn't the case. but the world is too small for that. You can find it out if you do a little bit of effort. So here's my story. United Arab Emirates will succeed, and they won't be the only one.

And we might very well see the glut that that clip you just showed implies. But that's not altogether good news either, because then the price of oil will collapse. And if it does, 30, $25 a barrel instead of what we see now, then all of the fracking in the Midwest of this country will stop and they'll all be out of business. And if you think that's not a problem, you're making a mistake because all of that depends on bank loans.

They will not be able to repay them. And then our banks will be in a problem. We keep using up every angle we can in this ad hoc government by Mr. Trump. And it's going to come sooner or later. He won't be able to patch it here, here, and here, and then it'll blow. But it could blow anywhere. But at this point, the mistake was ever, in my judgment, to overdo the dependence on fossil fuel? What is that about? The whole world is going in the other direction. We're not the

top dog anymore. We don't run the world economy. That's a fantasy of the second half of the 20th century. That's not what we have anymore. I regret it, you regret it. We all as Americans are having to live with what I just said, and that's hard. My heart really, it goes out to people. But denying it is not a rational way of coping with this. Then what you do is you get the fantasy of the British, if I can be so unfriendly. You know, they know that their empire is gone. They're just playing at it. That's why they have a king and why it is and all the rest of it.

I don't want to be mean, we don't do that, to our credit. But there's a denial here that the British can no longer, or the French, or the French, they know it's over. We still think we are, and we therefore make decisions on an assumption basis that then comes back and wax us, and that's what we're experiencing now. Well said, sir. We appreciate your time and your analysis. You're always dropping knowledge bombs. All right. I hope so. I hope you find it interesting. And I appreciate that. I speak for many of my friends, all the work that you do on your program. Thank you. That's extremely kind. Thank you very much, sir. Great to see you.

Yeah. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. We will see you all tomorrow, and we're about to do the AMA. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing.

How many men carry a suit or armor? It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves.

We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I got you. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me.

84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

84 was a wild. It was a wild. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.