The 2018 Women's March on the Pentagon takes place on Sunday following a day of workshops in response to the continuing course of US military aggression and spending and to put an anti-war agenda back in the political spotlight. Marchers are calling for an end to wars abroad, the closure of foreign bases, and deep cuts to the military budget.
Friday is Loud & Clear's regular segment on the midterms, taking a look at political races around the country in the runup to midterm elections in November. Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which hosts a livestream every Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. on Facebook, joins the show.
A massive caravan of 3,000 Honduran migrants that has drawn the ire of Donald Trump has begun to mass on Guatemala's border with Mexico, setting up a showdown with Mexican authorities who have vowed to stop it from continuing to the United States. Guatemalan authorities arrested the caravan's organizer, former Honduran congressman Bartolo Fuentes, and deported him back to Honduras. Brian and John speak with Jackie McVicar, a member of the Atlantic Region Solidarity Network, working in solidarity with people struggling for social justice and environmental protection in Latin America, the Caribbean and Atlantic Canada.
Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate in Brazil's October 28 presidential runoff, is the heavy favorite to win that race. Stirred by government corruption and rising crime, some voters are willing to look past his homophobia, misogyny, racism, and comments in support of dictators, including Adolf Hitler. But a rising movement in Brazil says Bolsonaro is a threat to democracy, and are supporting leftist Fernando Haddad. Now, a scandal related to illegal advertisements through the messaging app WhatsApp is shaking the race. Aline Piva, she is a journalist and a member of Brazilians for Democracy and Social Justice, joins the show.
Harvard University is on trial for allegedly discriminating against Asian-American applicants. The group Students for Fair Admissions alleges that Harvard violated the Civil Rights Act because the university's so-called "holistic" approach to applicants-weighing things like leadership, extracurriculars, and personal factors-harms minorities and is unconstitutional. Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, an internationally recognized expert on educational policy, school reform, and educational equity and social justice, and the former dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, joins Brian and John.
Israel's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that American student Palestinian rights activist Lara Alqasem was permitted to remain in Israel to study human rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Supreme Court said in its decision that Alqasem's detention during her appeal was "an extreme and dangerous step which could lead to the crumbling of the pillars upon which democracy stands." Meanwhile, the U.S. state department caused outrage by announcing that it would be closing its consulate handling relations with the Palestinians and replacing it with a Palestinian Affairs Unit that would operate out of the controversial U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, joins the show.
It's Friday! So it's time for the week's worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his blog Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
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