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MEGATRENDS highlights the lives of two of the world's most impactful political prisoners: Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti and Australian journalist Julian Assange. Why are these fellows in jail? The answers to those questions shed light upon the epicenter of a world at war with itself. The two wars under examination are the US war of Iraq and the Israeli war in Palestine.

At times of great upheaval in Palestine, people start to talk about Marwan Barghouti. The 64-year-old political leader serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison on charges even Israeli Shin Bet calls contrived, represents the prospect of a genuine shake-up to the status quo. Palestinian towns – and the Israeli-built concrete walls that cut them up – are covered in graffiti images of Barghouti, his handcuffed hands held high above his head. Virtually every opinion poll since his imprisonment two decades ago shows Barghouti to be the favourite presidential candidate for the Palestinian people, were they able to hold free elections. A December survey showed him 40 points ahead of the deeply unpopular current leader Mahmoud Abbas but also beating Hamas candidates, including the Islamist militant group’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh. Former Israeli intel chiefs and many politicians and worldwide leaders from Jimmy Carter to Nelson Mandela have called for his release, as this would galvanize and unite Palestinians to free themselves of the Israeli-funded and armed Hamas and the corrupt Palestinian Authority and their hapless figurehead Mahmoud Abbas, all understanding that this rare and profoundly trusted sage who represents a tangible path to a 2-state solution that could transform the toxic status quo and lead to peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.

With Palestinian factions deeply divided, Barghouti operates in a middle ground – respected by secular nationalists but also Islamists, many of whom he formed close relationships with in jail. Even Hamas, which despises the western-friendly circles that he is part of, has called for his release as part of a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal.

MEGATRENDS CALL FOR THE RELEASE OF JULIAN ASSANGE , FOR THE US TO DROP EXTRADITION and the UK GOVERNMENT TO FOLLOW INTERNATIONAL LAW

The US is punishing Assange for exposing the cruelty of US mass war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan—specifically: the video footage released to Wikileaks and Julian Assange by Lt. Chelsea Manning that detailed the murder of journalists and their children on the ground from missiles launched remotely. More than 4 billion people worldwide witnessed US war crimes, targeting civilians and their children with missiles while trying to escape in their SUVs to take them to a safer location—as the young US Army remote viewing team made jokes as their rockets killed more than a dozen people. That footage went viral, showing the callousness of the war crimes and mass murder of civilians in Afghanistan. THAT’s why the US is so feverish. What moral compass does the US have telling Israel not to bomb civilians? That’s a real PR problem for the DOD. Dan Ellsberg, calling for Julian Assange’s release from extradition and charges be dropped. Julian Assange’s release of the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs were of “comparable importance” to the Pentagon Papers – a study on the American war in Vietnam, which he leaked in 1971.The former military analyst made the comments at Assange’s trial last September, 2022, a year before he passed away. Dan Ellsberg declared: “It was clear to me that these revelations, like the Pentagon Papers, had the capability of informing the public—who had seriously been misled about the nature of war, progress in war, the likelihood of it ending at all,” he told the court.

MEGATRENDS calls for the release of both Marwan Barghouti and Julian Assange--along with the release of all 148 remaining hostages held by Hamas and the thousands young Palestinians held in detention without charges in the West Bank prisons. Later: MEGATRENDS interviews Bar Area bassist, composer and music professor at the SF Conservatory Pat Klobas of the Klobas -Kesecker Ensemble. We will also discuss why an electron is the same as every other electron in the universe, why it we be so, and how we know--a revelation that will shock your mind and stretch your imagination in an unexpected and beautiful way!