Brian talks with Zafar Bangash, Director of the Toronto-based Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought on the military actions to liberate Raqqa and Aleppo. The Syrian Army and a Kurdish-dominated coalition supported by U.S. airstrikes proclaim that they are both advancing on Raqqa, the headquarters of the so-called Islamic State. But are the two sides coordinating their efforts, or pursuing far different agendas?
The US Navy has ordered its personnel confined to their bases in Japan after people in the militarily occupied Japanese island rise up to demand the ouster of the US military base that has occupied their homeland for the past seventy one years. US military personnel have killed or injured civilians in a long string of incidents. Mass protests are underway. But is the Japanese government listening? Becker is joined by Eric Draitser, political analyst and founder of Stop Imperialism, and host of Counterpunch Radio.
More than five years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a young woman has spoken out about her thyroid cancer linked to the radiation. Just how many young people have cancer as a result of the disaster, and are steps being taken to insure that similar incidents don’t happen anywhere else in the world? Becker is joined by Kevin Kamps, the Radiation Watchdog at the Beyond Nuclear organization.
