{"podcast":{"title":"If You're Listening","slug":"if-you-re-listening-232515","podcast_index_feed_id":232515,"rss_url":"https://www.abc.net.au/feeds/9593214/podcast.xml","website_url":"https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/if-youre-listening/","image_url":"https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/0b00910f69470533fe28ab472d099166.jpg?src","author":"ABC Australia","episode_count":250,"summary":"The world is on fire. There's a coup. Inflation is through the roof, and AI is taking our jobs. What does it all mean? Each week, Matt Bevan explains the biggest story in world news while hiding in his basement from assassins and authoritarian regimes. Recent episodes include an exploration of the relationship between India and China, a closer look at the Saudi Arabian city of NEOM, the conflict in the Middle East, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and Ukraine's incursions into Vladimir Putin's Russia. Matt Bevan draws connections between stories from the past and the events of the present to help listeners understand world news and international affairs. The podcast also features series about big moments in world news; previous series have focused on the United States presidential election, the United Kingdom's 14 years of Conservative Party leadership, Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, Donald Trump's presidency and promise to Make America Great Again, the Mueller Report, Vladimir Putin's scheme to destroy western democracies, how the relationship between Australia and China came to the verge of collapse, and Australia's turbulent history with clima…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-12T04:23:07.571960+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515"},"episode":{"title":"Why Guantanamo Bay is so hard to close","slug":"why-guantanamo-bay-is-so-hard-to-close","published_at":"2026-09-09T15:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515/why-guantanamo-bay-is-so-hard-to-close","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515","url":"https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/if-youre-listening/why-guantanamo-bay-is-so-hard-to-close/107135054","audio_url":"https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/ob/Z/bm.mp3","summary":"It’s been 25 years since the September 11 attacks, and Guantanamo Bay is still open. But its use as a legal grey zone predates the War on Terror by a decade. In the early 1990s, thousands of Haitians fleeing a coup were held at Guantanamo, including hundreds of HIV-positive refugees held there indefinitely until Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins called it out at the Oscars. A US court ruling from that saga established that America's constitution doesn't apply on the base, because while the US has complete control there under a 1903 treaty, Cuba technically retains sovereignty. That's the same loophole the Bush Administration used when it opened a detention centre there in 2002, and 25 years on, the US still hasn't figured out how to close it. Follow If You're Listening on the ABC Listen app . Check out our series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq","meta_description":"It’s been 25 years since the September 11 attacks, and Guantanamo Bay is still open. But its use as a legal grey zone predates the War on Terror by a deca…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1755,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/if-you-re-listening-232515/episodes/why-guantanamo-bay-is-so-hard-to-close/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/if-you-re-listening-232515/why-guantanamo-bay-is-so-hard-to-close.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}