The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

Donald Trump has been indicted again. There are 4 charges this time around, including Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. The former President is facing decades in jail and still, he’s the leading GOP candidate in the next election. Sarah Isgur is a senior editor for The Dispatch and host of the Advisory Opinions podcast. She joins Gavin Esler in The Bunker from Washington DC to unpack the latest charges and exactly what they mean for US politics.

• “They’re going to have to prove Donald Trump’s mental state in this, and the jokes fly right there.” – Sarah Isgur.
• “When it comes to jail time, don’t worry, Trump is facing decades… way past his life expectancy.” – Sarah Isgur.
• “This is a mess. There will be good and bad legal reasons to delay some of these trials.” – Sarah Isgur.
• “It’s going to be really, really hard and detrimental for US politics for the years to come.” – Sarah Isgur.

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Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio production: Alex Rees. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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This week on Bunker Global: El Salvador’s war on gangs continues as President Bukele introduces mass trials for accused gang members. Plus, we take a closer look at China where President Xi has removed key military figures in charge of nuclear missiles, in an apparent power grab. And, what does Russia’s alleged kidnapping of Ukrainian children mean for Putin’s long term strategy?

Laura Makin-Isherwood, former London bureau chief of Feature Story News, and Doug Specht, reader in cultural geography and communication at the University of Westminster, join Jacob Jarvis to get you up to speed on what you need to know about news and politics from across the world. 

• “Putin’s obsession with Ukraine is going to be a lifelong mission and potentially an eternal war from Russia.” Jacob Jarvis
• “Bukele calls himself the ‘world's coolest dictator.” Doug Specht
• “​​Xi Jinping seems to be shaken by the Wagner coup. He’s trying to solidify his power.” Laura Makin-Isherwood

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Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Laura Makin-Isherwood. Producer: Liam Tait. Assistant Producer: Adam Wright. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Twitter as we know it is dead. The bird has been sent out to pasture and replaced with a stark ‘X’ symbol. Will Elon Musk’s rebrand go down in history as the most successful rebrand since ‘Snickers’ – or will it be the next ‘New Coke’?

Leslie Hallam, director of the psychology of advertising masters programme at Lancaster University, joins Alex Andreou in the Bunker to discuss the world of marketing, rebranding and Musk’s fascination with the letter X.

• "Brands exist so people can become attached to the products they represent."
• “Musk has run the Twitter brand in the ground, so it makes sense to rebrand it now.”
• "People mourn the loss of these brands, they’re important cultural artefacts.”

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Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producers: Liam Tait & Alex Rees. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Rishi Sunak’s decision to limit the number of students able to study what he calls “low-value degrees” has sparked backlash. Why is he doing this – and does it make sense? And is this even about education at all? Dr. Zoe Hope Bulaitis, assistant professor of liberal arts and natural sciences at University of Birmingham and author of Value and The Humanities, joins Gavin Esler in The Bunker to discuss where the PM is getting it wrong on university courses. 

• “The fact that students are willing to go into these careers shows that there’s more to life than a high pay cheque." – Dr Zoe Bulaitis
• “To say that a degree is ‘low value’ is to concede to the terms that a degree is valued to specific terms.” – Dr Zoe Bulaitis
• “This is more sensation than substance.” – Dr Zoe Bulaitis

Support us on Patreon:

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Attitudes to migration were a key cause of Brexit – but is it still such a major factor in how people vote? With research showing that the UK now has a more favourable attitude to migration, what are the arguments for it? Alex Andreou is joined by Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, and co-author of Brexitland, to explore the real public opinions on migration beyond the headlines.

• “People can’t do the maths on immigration so they always say they want less.”
• “A nationalistic narrative – that migration befits the country - is one way to change public opinion.”
• “The Labour voting opinion on migration has changed, there are more pressing things to worry about.”

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Book link:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/brexitland/667A60CB4C315A755792074E79B20FBA 

Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Setting up the stories of the week ahead. Today: Rishi Sunak says he’s “on the side of motorists”. How did a sliver of a vote in the Uxbridge by-election cause a massacre of green policies? Talking of pollution, Nigel Farage’s war on banks continues. Will his hard-done-by routine rehabilitate his political career? Plus the military coup in Niger, the Ukraine war comes to Moscow, and the latest from Israel’s democracy protests. Andrew Harrison is joined by Gavin Esler to give you the low-down on the week ahead in politics.

• “Why don’t Labour just stick to the plan, lads?” – Gavin Esler
• “There was resistance to the building of sewers, but the Great Stink of 1858 put an end to that.” – Gavin Esler
• “People have a bizarre, visceral attachment to their cars.” – Andrew Harrison

Support us on Patreon:

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Presented by Andrew Harrison and Gavin Esler. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Artwork: James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Can Artificial Intelligence replace our loved ones after death? Will Gregg Wallace’s cannibalism mockumentary change how we see the future of food? Dr. Kate Devlin, author of Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots and historian Dr. Kasia Tomasiewicz join Jacob Jarvis and Andrew Harrison to chew the fat and try to answer some of the after life’s biggest questions. Yes, back by popular demand, it’s the Bunker Panel! 

• “People are unpredictable and infuriating, I can’t imagine AI being able to replicate that.” – Andrew Harrison 
• “I’m really glad you didn’t invite me here to discuss connecting with your dead loved ones via lab grown meat.” – Dr. Kate Devlin
• "Food has always been linked to economics, Roman soldiers were actually paid in salt." – Dr. Kasia Tomasiewicz 

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Link's

Kate's Book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/turned-on-9781472950871/

A funeral for fish and chips: why are Britain’s chippies disappearing? by Tom Lamont

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/20/a-funeral-for-fish-and-chips-east-neuk-fife-anstruther-scotland

‘It was as if my father were actually texting me’: grief in the age of AI by Aimee Pearcy

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/18/ai-chatbots-grief-chatgpt

Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Phone hacking, false claims of election hacking and a potential high profile libel case with a maligned BBC newsreader. Those are just a few of the scandals facing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in the last few years. Despite this, the 92-year-old media mogul’s vice-like grip on the media landscape has remained as powerful as ever. 

Gavin Esler is joined in The Bunker by journalist William D Cohan, to find out how Murdoch has maintained his position of influence and power.

• “There's a lot of power entrusted with Murdoch, and there's no accountability for his behaviour” 
• “If I were him, I would be deeply disturbed by what my television network had created.”
• "Publishers have no appetite, or budget, for tough investigative reporting." 

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Producer: Chris Jones & Liam Tait. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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This week on Bunker Global: The Spanish election fallout as a hung parliament leaves Spain in political limbo. Are Wagner mercenaries really preparing to invade Poland? Also, Elon Musk is ghosting Twitter employees in Africa, why does Big Tech show such little respect to the global South? 

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Dipo Faloyin, senior editor of global news at Vice and author of ‘Africa is not a Country’, and Guy Hedgecoe, freelance journalist based in Madrid, join Andrew Harrison to get you up to speed on what you need to know about news and politics from across the world. 

• “It would be incredibly stupid for 5,000 mercenaries to invade a Nato country.” - Dipo Faloyin
• “It was a shock that Vox performed so poorly considering their huge success in local elections in May.” - Guy Hedgecoe
• “People have fallen out of hotel windows for a lot less than what Preghozin has done.” - Dipo Faloyin

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Andrew Harrison with Dipo Faloyin. Producer: Liam Tait. Assistant Producer: Adam Wright. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Are we witnessing the death of Silicon Valley as big tech shifts from physical products to services? And has the time of California being the promised land for budding tech bros gone? Dr. Kate Devlin is joined in The Bunker by Joel Kotkin, fellow in urban studies at Chapman University, to find out.

• “One of the dirty little secrets of Silicon Valley is that it was largely created by federal spending.” 
• “I have never met a group who are less conscious of their social impact than Silicon Valley people.“
• "Today Silicon Valley is a series of oligarchic companies with 80-90 per cent market shares and no desire to improve." 

www.patreon.com/bunkercast 

Written and presented by Kate Devlin. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Simon Williams. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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