The Health and Wellness show on the SOTT Radio Network covers topics of health, diet, science, homeopathy, wellness culture, and more. Tune in weekly!

Running Time: 01:53:00

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You may recall our run-in with Finnish media outlets earlier this year, when Finnish presstitutes targeted Sott.net with specious accusations in an apparent effort to intimidate us.

When Finnish SOTT (fi.sott.net) editors recently wrote an article about Finnish military historian and honorary doctorate Sampo Ahto's condemning views about US imperialism, and shared it on their Facebook page, the post was subject to the kind of trolling usually only reserved for those who stray too close to the truth.

The reason we're bringing this to your attention is that Finnish mainstream newspaper Lappeenrannan uutiset subsequently published a hit-piece on October 31^st titled: "a man from Lappeenranta had an incident with a Russian troll factory".

In this article by reporter Janne Koivisto, the "Russian troll factory" is our Finnish SOTT site. But extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. So let's take a closer look at this "news" story according to the Finnish newspaper:

Jorma Tyrmi from Lappeenranta was startled last week while using Facebook, when an unusual advertisement came up on the screen. Russia's president Vladimir Putin smiled on the advertisement, which led to an article on a website named Sott.net.

- An interesting thing was, that the ad was paid for. Russia is ready to pay a US business, so it can feed its nonsense to Finnish people, Tyrmi says astonished.

Maybe the Finnish media needs to retake Social Media Activism 101 at the US State Department, because what they describe as an "advertisement" is actually a Facebook link to an article on Finnish Sott.net. The article in question is a write-up about the website Dearputin.com.

So to summarize: some dude called Jorma Tyrmi from Lappeenranta in Finland saw an "advertisement" on the Sott.net Finnish Facebook page, drew the conclusion that it must have been paid for by the Russian government because it contained an image of Putin, became hysterical and called Finnish journalists, who then wrote a story about it. This, dear readers, is the "source" for the dubious claims in the headline of the Finnish newspaper. That's quality journalism right there!

The crash of Kolavia Flight 7K9268 from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, to St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 31st killed all 224 passengers and crew, making it Russia's worst ever aviation accident.

The Airbus A321 disappeared from radar over the Sinai desert 23 minutes after takeoff. No emergency signal was broadcast by the pilots. The plane began a rapid, almost vertical, descent from around 31,000 ft until it disappeared from radar at around 28,000 ft. The plane's debris and passenger bodies were spread over a 20 sq km area, with one 3-year-old passenger allegedly found 8 km from the main crash site. This strongly suggests that the plane broke up in mid-air.

Russian aviation experts have discounted the idea that the plane was shot down by a missile or that a bomb exploded on board. A technical fault that could have caused the plane to suddenly plummet out of the sky and incapacitated the pilots before they could send a distress signal is also implausible. Even if both engines failed simultaneously, the plane would still have been 'airworthy' enough to allow the flight crew to glide the plane to an emergency landing over the course of at least 25 minutes.

Something else, something extremely violent, sudden and catastrophic befell the plane and its passengers. Viktor Yung, deputy director of the airline, echoed this assessment when he said today that only an "external force" could have caused the plane to suddenly plummet from the sky.

"As the catastrophic incident started to develop, the crew members were rendered completely incapable. This explains why they didn't attempt to contact air traffic and report the incident happening on board," Yung said. Aleksandr Smirnov, who supervises the company's fleet, said that "the only possible explanation is a mechanical force acting on the aircraft, there is no combination of system failures that could have broken the plane apart in the air."

This week on Behind the Headlines we'll be discussing the conflicts in the Middle East and assessing where it's all likely to end up.

First up, we're interviewing Canadian freelance journalist and human rights activist Eva Bartlett. Bartlett has lived in the Gaza Strip since late 2008, and was aboard the Dignity, one of five Free Gaza missions to successfully sail to the Strip that year. Bartlett reported from Gaza during the 2008/2009 and 2012 Israeli attacks. She has visited Syria three times since April 2014, including independently on a journalist visa. Her Syria writings are collated on this page.

Later in the show, we'll also be speaking with Iranian-American Navid Nasr, writer, political analyst and host of the 'Bullet Points' radio show on the 'Voices of the 99%' radio network. Nasr has covered US and global conflicts - including those in Syria, Ukraine, Egypt, Yemen and Libya - for Lebanese Al-Etejah TV and PressTV.

Join us this Sunday, 1st November 2015, from 2-4pm EST / 8-10pm CET, for the perspective you won't hear on the mainstream media.

Running Time: 02:15:00

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Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your host Elan Martin, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

Monsters: What are they exactly? What forms do they take? What do they do? Is there a common thread between the 'supernatural' cases of Chupucabras or Mothman and serial killers Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer? Why has ISIS been so often referred to as a monster? And what do what do they all represent? Join us as we explore the concept of monsters, their meaning and their possible relation to our world.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:09:00

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The U.S. political, military and intelligence leadership have been scrambling to save face in Syria since Putin threw a geopolitical curve-ball at the empire-builders one month ago. Russia has now been pounding them with it repeatedly for 30 glorious days, taking out 1,600 terrorist targets and sending many of the critters fleeing. Put simply, the Americans created a wasteland, dug a giant hole in that wasteland, filled it with cannibalistic, head-chopping psychopaths, and bet the farm on burying their enemies in it, only to find themselves neck-deep in their own duplicity and hubris, scrambling to escape a problem of their own creation. American petard, meet Russian hoist.

Here's how it happened. After decades of using every dirty trick in the book to expand and maintain their hegemony -- bribery, blackmail, torture, coups, assassinations, death squads -- the Americans got complacent. To this end, the 'Al-Qaeda' bogeyman served them well. It is at once both a media creation to terrify the plebs and justify domestic and foreign power-grabs and a cover for mercenary warfare against foreign resistance to American occupation (e.g., Iraq), and against governments who refused to toe the American line (e.g., Libya).

Al-Qaeda 2.0 (ISIS/ISIL/IS) is no different. From 9/11 and the launch of the 'war on terror', the empire-builders enforced the PATRIOT Act and corresponding police state legislation right across the Western world, launched wars of occupation and proxy wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Mali and elsewhere and increased their economic, political and military dominance around the globe.

Naturally, they didn't think anyone would seriously challenge or call them on their bluff and bluster. Enter Vladimir Putin. Judging by American words and actions over the last month, and despite crying wolf about 'Russian invasions' in Ukraine since the coup d'état in Kiev in February 2014, the Americans didn't see the Russians coming in Syria.

Let's be honest here, the Americans practically handed it to Putin on a platter. They spent so much time and energy building up ISIS as the biggest, baddest, scariest bunch of psychopathic monsters that all Putin had to do was say, "Yeah, you guys are right. Mind if I take 'em on? You know I know Judo, right?" I would have loved to see the looks on their faces when they heard the news on September 30th.

The mainstream diet dictocrats are at it again, swearing up and down that meat is the equivalent of Satan himself on your dinner plate. This week, social media has been on fire with the latest WHO report that red meat is probably carcinogenic and processed meat is definitely carcinogenic. Smug vegans and "health" aficianados are crying "I told you so" while Paleo bloggers are crying foul. The real question is: Are red and processed meats actually harmful to our health?

Today on the SOTT Talk Radio Health and Wellness Show, we look into the subject of meat. Is your delicious steak harmful to your health? Is it beneficial? What about bacon? Does the WHO report have any merit? How can we make choices in our meat consumption that provide us our ideal nutrition?

All this will be explored and more as we explore the subject of meat here on the Health and Wellness Show. Join us every Friday at 10am EST.

Running Time: 02:05:00

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A recent report published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) titled 'Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat' has garnered a significant amount of media attention the world over in the past few days. As usual, the mainstream media didn't hesitate to take the opportunity to ramp up fear among the masses with sensationalist headlines like 'Processed meats do cause cancer - WHO' (BBC), 'If meat causes cancer, What can we eat?' (CNN), and 'Hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats cause cancer' (Washington Post).

These types of definitive statements, however, have not been limited to sensationalist media headlines, with even the World Health Organization itself making such claims on social media:

This week on the SOTT Radio Network's Health and Wellness Show, we're extremely fortunate to have a chance to speak with Yarrow Willard, Cl.H.

Yarrow is a Master Herbalist and the visionary of the Harmonic Arts Botanical Dispensary on Vancouver Island, at www.harmonicarts.ca .

From an early age, he was raised in the ways of natural medicine by herbalist parents. He graduated with a Clinical Herbalist diploma in 2005 and has been continually updating his knowledge base ever since. Yarrow is highly "edu-taining" and shares a wealth of insights into ways to upgrade health and deepen our connection with the natural world. He regularly shares the "Herbal Jedi" life path through events, classes, blogs, his website, youtube channel and other media outlets.

Running Time: 01:51:00

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As far back as the historical record goes, human existence on planet earth has been shaped and arguably defined by war. On the most significant level, i.e. the experience of those most directly and painfully affected by it, war is nothing more than the wanton slaughter of large numbers of human beings, the majority of them civilians, for no good reason. Aldous Huxley pointed out the absurdity of war when he said:

"The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own."

If war is not then in the interest of the average human being, why does it keep happening and what do the "mostrous coventions of politics" referred to by Huxley have to with this repeating pattern of war-making?

In early 2003, at least 11 million people in cities around the world took to the streets to protest against the planned invasion of Iraq. But their voices, and that of the silent majority they represented, were completely ignored by the political elite. Less than 10 years later, 1.5 million Iraqis lie dead and world wide terrorism has increased. So who benefits?

Join your hosts on Behind the Headlines this Sunday October 25th 2015 3-5pm EST 8-10pm CET as we explore the hidden hand behind the push for perpetual war.

Running Time: 01:58:00

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