--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Host: This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Saks Off 5th is your secret to fashion's most wanted deals at up to 70% off. On the hunt for designer steals that'll turn heads and leave a trail of envy? Uncover Gucci, Valentino, Versace, Stuart Weitzman and more. With new arrivals dropping weekly at prices too good to stay confidential. Lux layers, statement boots and tailored essentials from Saks Off 5th will put your wardrobe on the most wanted list. Head to SaksOff5th.com or SaksOff5th store near you for a style lineup you won't want to miss.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Go on, get a little out there, into the big heart of Nevada, where you can go off-road and off the map, on two lakes or on horseback. Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts. Climb a mountain or make your best effort. See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see, because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keogh, and at 14 hours GMT on Thursday the 26th of December, these are our main stories.
--:-- Bernadette Keogh: Ceremonies are taking place around the Indian Ocean to remember the devastating tsunami that happened on this day 20 years ago.
--:-- Urai Sirisuk: I felt that the waves took my daughter away. I was so mad at the sea. I can never forget it, no matter how many years have passed.
--:-- Bernadette Keogh: And military bloggers and aviation experts have suggested Russia shot down an Azerbaijani Airlines plane.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Actually, I think that when I sort of got away from it and reflected on it. I was astonished at human endurance and resilience in the face of something that nobody really could comprehend.
--:-- Jonathan Head: I mean, we knew what had happened, but when you're looking at death and grief on the scale that we were, it was very, very difficult to process. But people kept going.
--:-- Jonathan Head: We were, of course, able to go in. It was quite difficult, particularly in Aceh, where everything had been destroyed. It was difficult even to find a place to stay in because all the buildings were damaged and could collapse.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Everything had basically been destroyed in the city, but we could get away. People couldn't. And when we spoke to survivors there, there was this extraordinary, almost desolate despair.
--:-- Jonathan Head: I remember one man who'd come from a community on the coast where everything had gone. He'd lost most of his family. There were two surviving members with him, I think a sister and a sort of older child.
--:-- Jonathan Head: And he said that there was nothing left. All the buildings had gone, but he said there was no one else in the community that he'd managed to find and people were scattered all over the place.
--:-- Jonathan Head: There wasn't, he said, even the land where his village had been had been completely changed by the power of the waves. So he couldn't imagine how they could ever rebuild.
--:-- Jonathan Head: And that sense of complete helplessness was very, very distressing at the time. The number of times I can remember being in tears with the people that I was talking to.
--:-- Jonathan Head: But very quickly afterwards, people did rebuild and people bounced back. And in a way not having anyone to blame helped. No one was angry with anybody about this.
--:-- Jonathan Head: It had just happened. It was a monumental natural disaster. So basically everybody piled in to figure out how they could rebuild.
--:-- Jonathan Head: It was a multinational effort, and we saw the Americans, for example, coming in with their aircraft carriers and using their heavy-lift military helicopters in a way I don't think they'd ever done before.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Where they would essentially run an offshore airport because the little airport in Bandar Acha was completely overwhelmed and use these helicopters to pick up aid from depots and take it to very remote communities.
--:-- Jonathan Head: And the construction effort, of course, went on for years, but you saw communities building back to the point where, if you go to Banda Aceh today, you'd hardly know it had happened, apart from those really striking memorials they've left in place.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Those who experienced it, of course, have very vivid memories, but they have moved on. So what changes have been made, Jonathan, to try to prevent a similar disaster happening again?
--:-- Jonathan Head: Well, it's about responding better to it and there are much more effective warning systems in place. They talk here in Thailand a lot about the system of boys they've got in the sea that are supposed to detect sudden rises in sea levels in Indonesia.
--:-- Jonathan Head: They're not so confident in those but they have other methods of tracking any sort of sudden changes in sea levels, warnings of tsunamis. But the biggest change, I think, is probably people's awareness.
--:-- Jonathan Head: Back when that happened, most people had had no experience of a tsunami. Many people said they didn't even know what a tsunami was. Now people know.
--:-- Jonathan Head: They know that if there is a tsunami warning and there are sirens in all these coasts now and watchtowers, you get to higher ground as quickly as possible. That can save lives.
--:-- Jonathan Head: How is the 20-year anniversary being marked, Jonathan?
--:-- Jonathan Head: I would say reflectively and quietly in the ways that each community feels is appropriate. Down in Thailand, in Pangna, where the resorts that were most badly damaged are, you see a lot of foreigners there, people who lost family members.
--:-- Jonathan Head: I mean, 45 different nationalities lost their lives. There were official markings of it, official sort of speech is the usual thing. Kopee Pee, where I went, which was absolutely devastated.
--:-- Jonathan Head: A tiny island, 1,300 people died, many of them foreign tourists. A quiet, dignified ceremony. It's called sort of Disaster Awareness Day, so people remember it.
--:-- Jonathan Head: In Aceh, which is a devoutly Muslim part of Indonesia, a mass prayer session in the great mosque in the capital, Banda Aceh, which symbolizes Achenese identity.
--:-- Jonathan Head: And like many mosques, actually survived the tsunami quite well because it's built on these very slender pillars and the water just went between it.
--:-- Jonathan Head: So they had a prayer session there and a sounding of the siren system that they now have. Rather chilling to hear it, but of course, back in 2004, people didn't hear anything.
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--:-- Host: Military bloggers and aviation experts have suggested Russia accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani Airlines plane, which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing more than 30 people.
--:-- Paul Moss: 24 hours ago, I was sitting in the same chair talking about the crash as the first details emerged. But already it was very puzzling.
--:-- Paul Moss: We were told this was a flight to Grozny which had been diverted because of fog and that the plane then was told to land at an airport Aktau in southwest Kazakhstan.
--:-- Paul Moss: Well the first question is why. That is a journey of nearly 500 kilometers across the Caspian Sea.
--:-- Paul Moss: When a plane can't land at one airport because of fog, it usually lands at a nearby one. This is as if a plane was coming in to land in Paris, was told there was fog, and decided instead to fly all the way to Spain and fly to Madrid.
--:-- Paul Moss: That is the kind of distances we're talking. Then as the plane flies across the Caspian Sea, it is constantly changing direction and altitude.
--:-- Paul Moss: This is an aircraft which looks like the pilot is struggling to control it. Then it lands at Akhtau Airport or crashes at Akhtau Airport where there is no fog.
--:-- Paul Moss: So the plane has been diverted because of fog but crashes for another reason. At best, that is quite a coincidence.
--:-- Paul Moss: Now, immediately a reason was offered for while it was crashed, the theory that it hit a flock of birds.
--:-- Paul Moss: Well, who touted that theory? The first people to come out with a theory was a Russian aviation watchdog.
--:-- Paul Moss: So we have an Azerbaijani flight crashing in Kazakhstan. Why are the Russians so quick to tell us why it crashed?
--:-- Paul Moss: And finally, we also have interviews with the passengers on the plane. As you know, 29 survived. They say they heard an explosion.
--:-- Paul Moss: So what's being suggested might have happened? Well, as you say, the main theory is that it was mistaken for a Ukrainian drone and shot down.
--:-- Paul Moss: Grogyny had come under attack from Ukrainian drones on Wednesday. The Chechen authority said they'd shot some of those down.
--:-- Paul Moss: And also we have photographs of the fuselage which show what look like holes. Aviation experts say those are consistent with a missile being fired.
--:-- Paul Moss: I should say, though, that other theories are available. One is that the plane was not mistaken for a Ukrainian drone, but it was hit by a Ukrainian drone.
--:-- Paul Moss: Another theory is that it was the navigation system was deliberately jammed again as part of Russian defence measures.
--:-- Paul Moss: And Paul, just briefly, what's been the reaction from the Azerbaijani and Russian authorities?
--:-- Paul Moss: Well, the Russians have said so far it's too early to speculate, but you get an idea from looking at Russian state media.
--:-- Paul Moss: It continues to say the plane was hit by a flock of birds. Interestingly, they've shown footage of the crash site, but Russian state TV is not showing close-ups of the fuselage where you see those holes.
--:-- Paul Moss: They've also broadcast interviews with survivors, but cut the bits where the survivors say there was an explosion. Make of that what you will.
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--:-- Host: Health authorities in Gaza say five journalists were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a broadcast van outside Al-Auda Hospital in the Nazareth refugee camp.
--:-- Emir Nader: A video from earlier in the night shows Ayman El-Jedi in a press jacket with his colleagues, smiling, saying tonight he will become a father.
--:-- Emir Nader: Soon after, the Akud's today broadcast van, marked with large TV and press signs, was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
--:-- Emir Nader: It was parked outside a hospital in central Gaza's Nusayrat area, where it said El-Jedi's wife was about to give birth.
--:-- Emir Nader: Pictures show the mangled wreckage of the van ablaze. The Israeli military said that it had hit what it called a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside.
--:-- Emir Nader: Quds today is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group that took part in the 7th of October attack.
--:-- Emir Nader: The journalists were known to be living and working from their broadcast van. Last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 140 media workers have been killed during the war in Gaza, which has been called the deadliest conflict for journalists on record.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Up until two years ago, Ukraine celebrated Christmas on the 7th of January like the rest of the orthodox Christian world including Russia.
--:-- Host: But after the Russian invasion, Kyiv decided to move nativity celebrations to December the 25th in line with the Western tradition.
--:-- Host: But this does not apply to the annexed territories of eastern Ukraine where people are forced to abide by Russian law.
--:-- Natalia Deys: So families that have been split by the war now have to celebrate on different dates.
--:-- Natalia Deys: I'm the BBC's Natalia Deys. I caught up with Afina Kadzinova, a Ukrainian refugee in London, as she was calling her family left behind in the city of Mariupol, which has been annexed by Russia.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: I first spoke with Afina as she and her mother narrowly escaped from Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in March of 2022.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Now, over two and a half years later, she spends her Christmas alone in the UK, keeping in touch with her family over WhatsApp.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Who did you talk to right now?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: I spoke with my sister-in-law. I just said about how I spent Christmas morning here and how I went to Christmas service in London.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: As you woke up this morning, you probably learned that Russia has launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, forcing quite a few people to take shelters in metro station on Christmas morning.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: How does it make you feel?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: I am grateful I am in a safe place, in safe country. I feel really sorry for people in Ukraine who couldn't have this happy morning on Christmas Day and they suffer from Russian attacks.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: You've escaped in March 2022 together with your mother and you now live in the UK. But what about your mother?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: My mom decided to go back to Mariupol two years ago and now she is there. She's living under Russian rule, Russian occupation now.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Yes, she was lucky to have her apartment. It was not destroyed. So she lives in her house with her elder sister, who is 94 now, and she lost everything.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Her block apartment doesn't exist anymore. If I understand correctly, to live in Mariupol under Russian control now, you have to sort of accept Russian citizenship?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Yes, my mom accepted. There is no chance to survive without doing this because you can't even get SIM card for your mobile phone without Russian passport.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Do you have hopes of seeing her again?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Realistically, since you said your mother is 85 years old and she cannot really travel freely and you cannot visit Ukraine, do you accept that it may happen that you will never see her again?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Yes, I often think about it and the only hope is to finish the war and I will be able to go to Mariupol to meet my mom.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: What is Christmas Day like in Mariupol?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: In Ukraine, until two years before we celebrated Christmas on 7th January, and our traditions were family dinner on Christmas Eve.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Usually we had family gathering, cooking traditional food. As we are Ukrainian Greeks, we have our own traditions.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: And my mom cooked a special Christmas pie. She put a coin inside a pie. And when we cut this pie, the first piece of pie was for home.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: And next pieces were for each member of family. And who find this coin will be happy.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: What is life in Mariupol like at the moment?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: We don't know much about it. Yes, I could say the life has changed and many people connections were lost.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: But we have close family and they spend a lot of time together because my brother's family, my two nieces live there and they often visit my mom.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: The other members of your family, do they still consider themselves Ukrainians or Russians or Greek, how do they feel about what happened to their land?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: We never speak about politics and I can't say how they identify themselves because they just try to do normal life in those circumstances they have.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: I'm happy. They are happy, healthy and alive.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: What do you wish for in the new year?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: Because you know Christmas night is a magical night. So did you make any wish?
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: I just wish all people in Ukraine be happy My family be healthy.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: I hope one day we wake up and find out that the war finished and everything will be good.
--:-- Afina Kadzinova: And I will be able one day to go back to Mariupol. And to meet my mum and my nieces.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Still to come, the growing market for non-alcoholic wines in France.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Security forces in Syria have launched an operation against what they call pro-Assad militias in the western province of Tartus.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: It comes after 14 members of the security forces were killed in clashes in the region on Wednesday.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: Our Middle East regional editor, Sebastian Usher, told me more about the operation from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: It's security forces, militias that essentially were involved in the offensive that swept President Assad from power.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: Also, the kind of elite forces of the HTS group, the main Islamist group that led the offensive, have been involved in this.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: I mean, showing that the new authorities regard this as a considerable challenge, They want to quash essentially as quickly as possible so that it can't build into a longer lasting challenge to their authority.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: It comes, as you were saying in the introduction there, after, I guess, what's the deadliest incident so far since these factions took over.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: 14 police security forces being killed yesterday and the authorities blaming militias linked to President Assad.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: So they say essentially that they are searching and hunting down what they call the remnants of Assad's militias in the woods, in the hills, in the province of Tartus.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: Tartus is one of the areas in the west of the country where the Alawite community to which Assad belongs has its largest numbers and it's where really the bedrock of support for Assad existed.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: And so it's not surprising that there is some holdouts there.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: The big question, obviously, for the authorities in Syria, but also, I mean, people watching from outside, the many different countries that have sent their diplomats and officials to talk to the new leadership, are hoping that, you know, things will stabilise.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: So everyone watching this closely to see whether this becomes a big challenge, a wider conflict, or it's something which can be nipped in the bud.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: What are the challenges, really, in holding the country together that the new leadership has said it will do?
--:-- Sebastian Usher: They talked, I mean, the leader, Ahmad al-Shahra, has talked very much of unity. And of course, that's been a very short supply in Syria.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: The civil war exacerbated the divisions that were latent in the country in any case.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: And there's been no movement really to heal those divisions. So it's a very big task and part of that task is to try and control the armed factions and Apenn al-Shar has very much made that his priority, not just with the Alawites over in the west but also in the east with the Kurds.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: That also could be a big challenge of a very different kind. The Kurds essentially kept out of much of the fighting until now.
--:-- Sebastian Usher: That could be a new battleground essentially that could be opened up.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: One result of us being confined to our homes during the Covid pandemic is a surge in demand for eye-catching houseplants, which will attract likes when images of them are posted on social media.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: An illegal international trade in rare plants has blossomed in recent years, with South Africa becoming its hub.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Demand is particularly high for a type of plant known as succulents and it's so intense that some of them have now become extinct in the wild.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Many of the world's succulent species are only found in this biodiversity hotspot, the succulent karu, which spans South Africa and Namibia.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: But now they're under threat from poachers who steal them from the wild to sell abroad.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: But this is one of the groups of succulents that have been most severely targeted.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: I've come to the rechtersfeld transfrontier park which is working to protect succulent species threatened with extinction and rehabilitate plants seized from poachers by law enforcement.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Many of the seized plants are replanted in pots here in an effort to save them.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Some of these succulents are just beautiful, just unique.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Peter van Weyck runs the nursery here. In South Africa we know already of seven species that has been wiped out completely and there are certainly more species that will go extinct very soon.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Peter says organized crime syndicates use social media to create a buzz around particular plant species which fuels the poaching and smuggling.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: The syndicates they saw this as an opportunity of making something viral telling as wide as possible public we have this super strange looking thing that comes from the African continent and then the public just loses their heads and they say, I want to buy one.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Criminal networks recruit local people to carry out organised poaching activities.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: And this is having knock-on effects on communities here.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: I spoke to one woman from a local farming community whose identity we are hiding for her own safety.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Her words are spoken by a producer. Unemployment is a reality. And in our community, it's really bad.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: When they get the money, there's more drugs, more alcohol, children are neglected because mommy is drunk, daddy is drunk, there's no food.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: For me, it's a really sad story because they've not just stolen our land or our plants, they've stolen our heritage as well.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Efforts are being made to address the problem and the police do patrol the area on the lookout for smuggled plants.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Work is also being done on the demand side. This is a video from an online campaign in China aimed at educating people about the illegal succulent trade.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: The country has become one of the biggest markets for poached plants in recent years.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: But Linda Wong from Clean Internet for Conophytum campaign says people have been responsive once they understand the impact.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: The key is awareness. Once people know they want to take actions, They want to take responsibility and consume those plants to enjoy their beauty in a very responsible way.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: There's a legal trade in succulents which have been grown in a nursery rather than taken from the wild.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: Conservationists advise customers all over the world to ask about the origin of a plant before buying one.
--:-- Nomsa Maseko: The hope is that with more awareness, the poaching of wild succulents can be stopped and South Africa's precious biodiversity protected.
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--:-- Host: A killer whale that captured the world's attention in 2018 after refusing to let go of her dead calf has given birth again.
--:-- Steve Jackson: The orca, known as Talikwa, has been seen with a new baby off Washington State in the US.
--:-- Steve Jackson: Talakwa two and a half week journey six years ago made headlines around the world. She pushed her dead calf more than 1 kilometres in an apparent demonstration of grief.
--:-- Steve Jackson: Conservationists are hoping the story this time is a happier one, but they've warned that early life is a very dangerous time for killer whale calves.
--:-- Steve Jackson: Talaquah is an experienced mother and has previously given birth to two young that have survived.
--:-- Steve Jackson: The Centre for Whale Research, which is monitoring this pod, says it hopes further sightings will give more clues as to the health of the calf.
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--:-- Host: For those of you who've been celebrating Christmas, you may have been enjoying a glass or two of wine. But what about alcohol-free wine? It's become a serious commercial proposition, as producers eye a growing market.
--:-- Hugh Schofield: It's even catching on in France, as our correspondent Hugh Schofield has been finding out in the home of Claret, Bordeaux.
--:-- Hugh Schofield: A couple of weeks ago, an old part of town and the launch of Bordeaux's first ever cave or wine shop dedicated solely to what just a couple of years ago would have caused any self-respecting Bordelais to splutter into his glass, vin sans alcohol.
--:-- Hugh Schofield: This is no fad, no obscure niche in the market. The deputy mayor of Bordeaux is here to lend official approval.
--:-- Hugh Schofield: For the fact is, alcohol-free wine is increasingly looked on in Bordeaux as part of the future. Maybe, whisper it not, even a saviour in troubled times.
--:-- Alexandre Catane: We opened one month ago and we have at least three or four wine producers that came here just because they were willing to know what is a non-alcoholic wine shop.
--:-- Alexandre Catane: And they say, OK, we want to go there. So they don't know how to do it, but they know that it's an opportunity.
--:-- Charlotte Buchard: Among the ruddy-faced Bordeaux wine growers, the daughter of a wine seller, Charlotte also is of the view that this is a huge potential new market.
--:-- Charlotte Buchard: It was through my own experience of pregnancy of not being able to drink wine and starting to think, well, you know, what kind of alternatives are there instead of just drinking water when you drink sodas or fruit juices.
--:-- Charlotte Buchard: And so I thought, well, actually, why don't I start my own brand?
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: My name is Frédéric Brochet. I am what you would call a wine geek. I was, as we say, born in a barrel.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: Several things have happened, says Frédéric. On the one hand, the market's changed. More young people are steering away from alcohol.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: Second, and linked, French vineyards are in crisis. They need desperately to find new products.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: And third, with investment money pouring in, the technology is improving by leaps and bounds.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: We started from very, very far away. And it was pretty disgusting by these days. And so we've been working hard and we've made very nice progress.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: And actually, I feel like now we're not getting close to it, but we're getting closer and closer every day. To what?
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: To what? Well, to something which is going to be a kind of a, I think, a big revolution in the wine industry.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: The first non-alcoholic wines were made by boiling off the alcohol, then adding flavouring. Today it's different.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: The alcohol is removed in a vacuum, so at low temperature, and then the aromas are captured and returned to the wine. That's the theory.
--:-- Frédéric Brochet: In practice, it's very hard, especially for reds, to recreate the mise en bouche, the mouthfeel, and the non-alcoholics still tend to be rather thin.
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--:-- Host: A few miles from Bordeaux on the Montagne Saint-Emilion, this is the Clos de Bois wine estate and its owner Coralie de Bois.
--:-- Coralie de Bois: A few years ago, she was asked to make an alcohol-free wine for the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain football club.
--:-- Coralie de Bois: And now it's become an essential part of the estate's income.
--:-- Coralie de Bois: At the start, she was regarded as a traitor to true wine, even by her own family, but not anymore.
--:-- Coralie de Bois: Today, if you listen to my father, he said, good job, my daughter, because you are in the locomotive of the train.
--:-- Coralie de Bois: You know, the economic conjoncture is very complicated, actually. And if today Chateau Claudebois is able to survive to this conjoncture, it's really because we sell approximately one third of our production without alcohol.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Until next time, goodbye.
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--:-- Host: Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford, and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty.
--:-- Cindy Crawford: Well, I don't know about you, but I never liked being told, oh, wow, you look so good for your age. Why even bother saying that? Why don't you just say you look great at any age, every age?
--:-- Cindy Crawford: That's what Meaningful Beauty is all about. We create products that make you feel confident in your skin at the age you are now.
--:-- Cindy Crawford: Meaningful Beauty. Beautiful skin at every age. Learn more at MeaningfulBeauty.com.
--:-- Host: According to a nationwide survey conducted by GeneSight, nearly 9 in 10 Americans who've been diagnosed with depression or anxiety believe that mental health medications are somewhat or very effective.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: That's why Dr. Whitney Brown, a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner based in Alabama, often recommends genetic testing to our patients as part of their treatment journey.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: As part of my treatment plan, I offer the GeneSightTest, which analyzes how a patient's genes may influence how they metabolize or respond to certain mental health medications.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: To learn more, visit Genesight.com. That's Genesight.com.
--:-- Host: America is changing, and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is The Global Story.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
--:-- Asma Khalid: Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
