Ep. 24: Unmasking the GRU; The future of al-Shabaab; F-35 and the UK; and Bell Helicopter CEO Mitch Snyder

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• This week we learned one of the men believed to have poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the southern Great Britain city of Salisbury this past March may have in fact been a trained medical doctor. We’ll talk (1:59) with one of the open-source investigators who helped unmask those Russian spies, Aric Toler of Bellingcat.
• Almost exactly one year ago, the deadliest terrorist attack in Africa’s history took place in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The culprits: al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia. We’ll hear (15:41) from the authors of a new book — Harun Maruf and Dan Joseph from Voice of America — about the group, its history, and an outlook for how long its reign of terror may endure around the Horn of Africa.
• Then (33:36) we’ll turn to America’s allies in the British navy. They recently welcomed the world’s most advanced combat aircraft — the F-35 — to their lone aircraft carrier training in the Atlantic Ocean. Our own Marcus Weisgerber was there and tells us what it means for America’s ally across the pond.
• And we’ll end with an interview with Bell Helicopter CEO Mitch Snyder. He sat down (42:47) with Marcus to talk about the V-22 Osprey, the possible future of aircraft taxis, China, and more.

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