Its definitely very much insufficient to handle these crisis. Clean up operations are still underway in morocco after last week. Devastating or earthquake. The u. N. Estimates that more than 300000 people have been affected marrakech and the high Atlas Mountains, or among the hardest hits, nearly 3000 people have died. Stephanie decker reports from labor here. So this town is much more established than the other very remote villages. Weve been to but the struction here also on a very large scale how much of the town has been damaged. This is about maybe you have done 50 percent completely destroyed seats, minarette and crux. And again, here just goes to. So again, the challenge of um, bringing heavy equipment into these areas. Removing all of this and rebuilding uh, that is the main challenge really everywhere. North Korean Leader kim jonathan has inspected rush us warplanes, a naval fleet in the port city of lot of us stock. He was joined by defense minister, so a guy shall go during the last leg of his trip, his trip, his race concerns that north korea may provide russia with weapons for its war and ukraine. Wildfires are burning across the Northern Areas of algeria. They have destroyed thousands of hector is a forest cover in the mountainous region of covey. Australia is experiencing a rear spring heat wave which could set new records. Temperatures have reached more than 34. 00 degrees celsius and sydney, and that is 12 degrees above the september average. And theyre also comes after australia is warm is winter on record. That goes to the headlines on elishas here. As always, theres our website options here, a dot com, which carries the latest on all our top stories up next is the listening post. Is this time for the west to we think the best option for the ukraine much more than what . What those options look like . What is us strategy when it comes to iran for almost 200 years, americans have generally been stuck with 2 political choices, but cannot ever change the quizzical look us politics. The bottom line. Saudi arabia is playing the long putting money into sports as part of a national re branding project. Google gets taken to court by the Us Government for monopolizing our internet searches, plus preaching the gospel of ac, isnt seen american on you, the, the longer to just burden youre at the listening post where be big into the coverage and analyze how news gets reported. Its, its been saudi arabia, summer of sports for months. The saudi football league, backed by Big Oil Money from the state, has been lowering star players away from europe and teens names like name or rinaldo, and bends. And i have made their way to the kingdom. For extortion, it sums investment in sports and not just football, has become a priority and re part of crown Prince Mohammed been solved mon strategy to diversify the Countries Oil dependent economy and to re shape its brand analyst accuse this out is of sports wash using athletes to distract attention from the kingdoms poor record on human rights. That is not to say that some progress hasnt been made, been sol, mine is pushing through a program that is reforming and religious institutions, making incremental changes to womens rights and opening up employment for young saudis. The right to dissent, however, still does not exist. Just how deep was saudi arabias reforms go and how effective will sports prove to be as a tool to we brand the kingdom for goals, sorceries, wrestling walks the formula one name is forth and chances are saudi arabia has recently pump plenty of oil money into. Its great for the city, its up to you get a hot human rights issue. Someone who was the quote, we need this investments that arent necessarily about only economic returns, the saudis, and the crown prince, known as m b. S mohamed been selma, are also looking for a different kind of peo, sports or that was central component of the countrys long term political strategy and exercising national rebranding. Known as vision 2030, a lot of it has to do with the role that sports plays in modern society. Is this kind of, intertwined in a financial interest of cultural interest, means that if it comes far more difficult to challenge solving ravia the number of other fields, whether were talking about Energy Prices or some of the more aggressive Foreign Policy goals. And the crown prince has been pursuing for this entire period. Whats happening now in saudi arabia, undeniably, is transformative. Saudi is trying to diversify its economy away from oil, find other sources of jobs for citizens, and to ship the economy away from hydrocarbons. Thats one piece. The other piece is cultural and social, shifting the country away from the very austere brand of islam. It has define Saudi Society for generations like along womens drives, encouraging them to enter the workforce, allowing concerts and raves, and trying to re orient Saudi Society towards an identity that is based more on nationalism, lot of human rights activists. To point out that despite all the social reforms, womens rights defenders and minorities and human rights advocates have been thrown in jail and freedom of expression is still a major issue inside the radius. So with regards to how transformational and b s is performed over the last 6 years, the drawers to saudi arabia is not the 1st country to resort to sports washington to enhance its reputation. Its just that in recent years, there has been a lot to clean the murder in 2018 of the exile, journalist jamal shops who was once a loyalist, and then turned into a critic of been so months called the saudi led military intervention. Any, yep, it started in 2015 and helped transform a civil war into a quagmire. That has claimed close to 400000 blogs. Saudi arabias continued support of storage area and regimes in the arab world while repressing political descent. Within only 2 months ago, a court in react convicted a man with only 10 twitter followers for his Anti Government codes and sentenced him to death. Price rise in 2021 us president ial bidens came to our promising to treat saudi arabia as an and then Oil Prices Went on. Last year, joe biden met m b s in saudi arabia, and very famously fis pumped him, and that was an image that was shared with across the well. One of the major things that changed last year was the training russel, which had a huge impact on the oil prices. So the conversation has moved on. And while the moral objections also the death of social g. Now with the changing kind of Global Financial situation, theres moral objections and kind of been shifted to the side and its business as usual. 7 the 1st thing thats changed is present time, 5 years have gone by since the murder of democracy up to the war in yemen has fallen into a law. Theres a ceasefire in place. And if youre over these things, you saw 567 years ago, has faded somewhat. Another thing thats changed has been out of political level countries that once isolated saudi arabia have changed their tune. Joe biden was very frosty towards the kingdom for the 1st year or so, but then oil prices climbed and he decided that he needed to have a better relationship with the saudis. The 3rd thing is, frankly, theres just a lot of money on the table and thats hard to walk away from. If you are in business and further still, if youre actually being enticed for your future college like this, john over not the aging. Fortunately, super late last year, having played for mega teeth like re on the drip. And manchester you nights, he said playing and the saturday league was a non start. If it was just about money, would it be a, be a saudi arabia, find honey, this kings ransom, but he, thats not what motivates you the want to keep up the talk to me because i thought i still believe that not going to school many, many goals are now one month later when all those signs are richard contract and football history, without enough, in re its worth 200000000. 00 euros a year. 19000000 for what he does on the pitch, the rest in commercial sponsorship. Which means rinaldo wont just be playing in saudi arabia. He will also be part of the countrys p r. The give it a different vision of the country, of the football perspective of everybody when it was just simply one player. You know, like christiano, rinaldo being the 1st sign before we saw any of these other string of deals a lot more questions were being asked, why would someone go to a league that clearly is not up to the same standard, especially the global superstar in an icon in that sense, but were even hearing from and b a stars or saying, and when can we be invited to saudi arabia money definitely talk soon. Its able to bring a lot of people into the kingdom. They were able to bring not only some very prominent and or aging football stars, but also to start to attract even younger promising talent. This is definitely something new to see these top players going to leave. Thats outside of europe. Now, all of the different journalists across europe and United States are talking about the saudi leave, the same time that theyre talking about these other european leaks. And i think thats exactly what the saudis wants. Theyre in a vicious nation. They want to be at the center of all of these Different Networks permeating the coverage of this story is the unmistakable odor of doubles fan blowing in. Yet again from a westerly direction. Sports funds have been in dig, accusing the saudi league of coaching players from your calling for bands on such a trance. Apparently coaching doesnt matter when its your scouring the playing fields of south america for face one to global for football and talent for what set saudi arabia apart is that these investments have come from the state. And how is that when america is chosen to stage the world or the u. K. Holes the olympics, their politics never get. This kind of western journalists dont raise issues like the rack or guantanamo, but you dont have to be a fan of m b as to wonder why. As far as the International Media are concerned, the saudis seem to be, you know, league of their own. The investments was so huge that i think society leak was actually the 2nd largest investor within the transfer market. So there was some anxiety about that, some sort of call it oriented lism or sort of cultural in east with that. But you have to understand that this is also due to the fact that this is a state that is investing. And especially when study or village to be doing this for a number of years to come. I think everyone just realizes that this is something that theyre going to have to deal with. There is a very specific double standard that is applied to the middle east. Its the most controversial world copeland history. If you look at the world come last year, there was a level of criticism samsung up there that wasnt aimed at russia or china when it goes to the olympics and staging. Unquestionably, both of those countries have far worse human rights, beckers products, but there was a real level of criticism and that last years world cups that wasnt applied to the previous one. So i think its for the kids at the middle east. But part of this, i think it is a deeper recognition thats taking place within europe and live in north america to an extent that the son, her power relationships in terms of culture and the fact that we no longer seems to be just kind of a concern because other lease is coming from a sense of entitlement on how this game belongs to that. But if its truly a global gain from the idea of turning to the u. S. Now where the government launched a significant legal case this past week against the tech, a behemoth google flo. Phillips is here with the details. This trial is being cooled. The 1st major anti trust case of the 21st century, and its about as big as they come on to trust refers to lowest countries to put in place to prevent any Single Company from having a monopoly. Controlling a market or industry by preventing competitors from having a fast shot from the regulators perspective, monopolies can make people rely on Just One Company for essential services, like searching for information online. Thats why this past tuesday, the Us Department of justice, lowest its case against google. What weve seen so far is the google paid upwards of 10000000000. 00 a year to all the tech companies, like apple and samsung, to make google that default search engine. Google does the same on its own, widely used android phones on that, according to the prosecution, is an unfair advantage. But google isnt the only tech johns on the legal radar right now. Over the past couple of months, the European Union approved 2 key legislation packages. The digital market sacks, the Digital Services act, aimed at keeping big corporations, google included from exploiting that size and forcing Online Platforms to be responsible for content posted. Google says its success comes down to quote the quality of its product, the exact same defense that was used by the, in the all the tech john to face and 90 trust case. So this kind, microsoft can 1998 that trial which true intense media coverage, centered around internet explorer. Microsoft browser. The company was found guilty of breaking competition rules and it was for us to allow users twins to rival soft way more easily. Rivals such as google, thanks a lot. I at the risk of getting existential a question, is god real . Some people in search of the answer are going onto you to all kinds of channels. There are dedicated to debates around faith and religion. Content creators explain and promote various religions. And theres also a sizable community on an atheist, typically different mission, to explain why they dont believe in god. Their videos can range from how they came to that conclusion, to critiques of what they argue is the harmful role. Religion can play in politics and society. Atheist are a minority in every country, but its a growing world view, including among americans. Still being an atheist in many parts of the us. Can be downright unacceptable. But listening post ryan coles. Now one ac is in, in america, and the countries godless, apostles on you to the drew mccourt is one of hundreds of thousands of americans making a living on youtube. He might look like a typical, millennial youtube or but the nature of his videos are a little different. I feel like this one could get me in hot water. When mccoy, better known, is genetically modified, skeptics turns the mike on. The content can be controversial and to some highly offensive. The very idea of a christian bible was invented by a flawed human being. If youre going to hell in every religion, i definitely want to hear of how why without sufficient reason to believe christianity was true though i had to leave all of that behind. When i became an atheist, i couldnt tell anybody because that would mean that i was not only rejecting their personal lord and savior, but i was maybe even rejecting them as individual. That is how my evangelical community would have taken it. I was raised independent fundamental about this that meant that we believe that the end times or near the earth was created in 6 literal days by god. About 6000 years ago. Some of the things that i was taught i started to question, i didnt have anyone in real life to talk to about issues of religion and atheism. So i decided that maybe i could go online and express myself freely if that was really the only place i could do it until next time everyone keep an open mind and stay skeptical. Drew is certainly not alone. Hes part of a Wider Community of atheist in the United States who found a sanctuary on youtube. Im john police and the douglas engineer. Theres a slew of popular channels with millions of viewers dedicated exclusively to articulating the eightys world. I dont think its knowable if a god exists in challenging religious narratives for the approximately 10 percent of americans that open the identify is non believers. If religious people want us to believe in god, then the burden of proof is on that. To me with most ac is youtube, birds have a very similar origin story. They were once ardent believers and grew up in strict christian communities. Now they feel compelled to defend their god. This world view often in the face of great adversity. People who come out of a specially get dogmatic, fundamental us ty, control face. They come out and theyve got a real fire in their belly and they look for an out and youtube provides that. But you want to read a book to really make you an atheist. Im going to recommend the bible. You can have the long form exchange. You can develop a relationship with a viewer, if you see a debate show like the atheist experience, they welcome religious people to call in and they challenge them directly over 75 percent of all the scholars and. And historians can agree that jesus of nazareth was a real person. Well, okay, so 1st that 1st of all, 93 percent of all. So test x are pulled right or somebody with the time that they need to use them. The types of interactions you get will vary based on the type of channel. You st pissed them. Ology or get just a curious um do you have like 5 minutes have a conversation about god. I am most interested in what i call kind of the seekers. I was a believer for a long time and i dont know. Ive got doubts, but i just googled atheist and your channel popped up. They needed to find this Online Community because they dont have the people around them who understand their experiences. The American Religion has faith in faith. And so people who dont believe anything, theyre scary to a lot of americans, particularly american christians, where a state is dominated by christians. Thats where its harder to be an atheist. You may not be able to tell your family because it might not be safe. You might lose your job. So it is difficult to be an atheist and much of america, except online, where youtube has provided a diverse space for atheist thought. You can pick and choose the style and tone of content. In the early days, however, it was a space dominated by predominantly snarky white men who ridiculed religion and the religious atone largely set by the so called new a thought leaders like Christopher Hitchens and richard dawkins. Obviously, i do not share your beliefs. And i think you are listening to a so lets do on your career scares to be to be inspired, a new generation of non believe a point, blistering debate tactics that were soon emulated by youtube, hers. In recent years, those tactics have shifted. South andrews witnessed the evolution. He was there from the beginning, the temperature of atheist activism. Back then was a lot more mockery of religion. You know, jesus, a stand claws for adults. You need to grow up and accept reality because christianity is as a cold and its not true. The bible is the corporate world. Its divinely inspired. I think a lot of this had the delusion that you can mock people out of there. But if you can make them feel safe and if they make me feel safe, thats when conversations begin. And i think online 880 is, im in activism. I think we sort of woke up to that. You need to be able to have good faith conversations with, with people who dont share your non belief. You need to have a more nuanced understanding of religion if you would rather not question essential parts of your face. Thats your prerogative. But dont paint others as unreasonable or immoral for being open to questioning. Theres one of my missions, one of my goals now has become to make content that while not pulling punches, when im criticizing religion, i am taking a tone that someones mom wouldnt be able to listen to and maybe even resonate with i want to be so clearly compassionate and so clearly human and what im saying that its impossible to de humanize me around the election of donald trump. A lot of us saw that talking about the secularism with compassion width times was so necessary if we wanted to man the relationships that were constantly being broken by the division in our country. That was the way that was actually going to get things done. I think that that attitude of compassion over vitriol, has won out overall when it comes to atheist Youtube Culture today to place your left hand on the bay of 5 on raise your right hand. And some American Atheist may be softening their approach to fight for a pluralistic society. But its an uphill battle in a country thats not only a majority chris to mission that i will faithfully execute, but affords christianity a certain privilege, higher political cone. So help you, god, so help me, god. And one element without the size political influence in recent years is christian nationalism. This fringe ideology insist that the us is a christian nation. One that you being governed by biblical principles, despite the clear separation of church and states in the constitution. This movement is now a central target for atheist on youtube. This is something that we must fight and i have joined not just other atheist, the people of other religions and even christian. So youre a christian. But do you and i join and being critics and sounding the alarms about christian nation list. Absolutely. They are allies in the cause. Im not an anomie of christian. I am surrounded by christians, and they are, in many cases, the most important people in my life. I will fight for someone to write to be religious. When i engage is when they claim that the nation belongs to them, of engaging in these religious debates isnt exactly easy. People like andrews and mccoy, made a difficult decision to tell their truths. Now theyre on a mission spreading the word and pushing for a future where others in the so called land of the free can express themselves without fear. People have communicated to me that if they were to be public in the way that i am, that they would be kicked out of their homes, that theyd be dis owned. Ive also had people tell me that watching my videos made them realize that there are other people who think the way that they think and that thats okay. I dont want every religious person to become an atheist. The world wouldnt be better if we were all atheist for the world would be better if we were all able to critique the belief that we were programmed with by our surrounding culture. And finally, a plot twist from a hollywood actor that went viral. Woody harrelson delivered this little speech more like a satirical bit of last year as Film Festival in con, when promoting a movie at the time rush. It was just a few months into its war in ukraine, and thats where reporters thought haralson was going with his take on the dangers of imperialism. His 32nd breakdown of geo politics got revived on social media this past week because of the anniversary of the 911 attacks and 2001. Can you see where this one is going . Well see you next time. Here at the listening post. How i feel about the character of it, but you know, the care. Theres a marxist, im not a marxist. Im an anarchist. So in that sense we differ. Yeah, im the kind of guy who just thinks its abominable when a superpower, with all this military, my, with no probably cation to, you know, attach a, uh, you know, uh, just unprovoked attack to a big country that is, uh, you know, like, like, you know, rac sorry, that can comes via you know, sorry youre right. The i have the right to boycott any, what i want to and the state has no business getting involved. And then the new 3 part series explodes, the implications of us and people go to the freedom of speech and 1st amendment gods chosen to bless us because we protect israel. Im going to continue. Do you want to state level all that . I cant support that whenever you see injustice regardless of what space or gender, whats going on. You see that you have to say. So im saying this is a region that is last week. We develop thing, but its one also that is afflicted by conflict. Police collapse, we try to balance the stories, the good, the bad ive been and the people allow us into their lives. They gave me 10 to minus each, ask them to tell the stories that theyve got a breathtaking tropical paradise. Ready of where its former projectors are now we follow through just as they put their lives on the line. The think its all one now to 0 its not showing you here is coming over our heads from russian positions and a new cranium. Positions have been standing about how they were directly targeted as they were trying to sleep. Weve seen some of the residents come out of the building with that possessions in the suitcases. Place of stay, feel safe, and what happens on that day is a will quite legion, plus the lines and the level of destruction here. Proof just how fast the fighting has been in recent weeks, this russian or multiple in a street has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. The 5 days after devastating floods hit the libyan ford city of during a look at the challenges of getting foreign aid into the region. The time 0 band aids with the have you with us. This is elza 0 live from dont also coming up, the daunting task of rebuilding the last weeks worth quaking morocco. We report from the high Atlas Mountains weve been traveling through the