The governments of Russia and Turkey yesterday announced a demilitarized zone in the Syrian province of Idlib, a move that appears to have delayed what was believed to be an imminent assault on the area by the Syrian army. Meanwhile, a Syrian anti-aircraft battery accidentally shot down a Russian transport plane last night, killing all 15 Russians on board. The Russian and Syrian governments blamed interference by the Israeli air force for the accident.
Tuesday's weekly series is False Profits-A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey. Financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey joins the show.
President Trump yesterday ordered the declassification of documents related to the Russia investigation, including supporting material for a FISA warrant targeting former Trump campaign official and advisor Carter Page, and text messages exchanged by former FBI agent Peter Strzok and his girlfriend. Supporters laud the move's transparency. But detractors are criticizing the president for politicizing intelligence. Brian and John speak with Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, whose latest article is "Be Careful What You Ask For: Wasting Time with Manafort, Cohen, and Russiagate."
Hurricane Florence is now a tropical depression, but she left much of North Carolina underwater and killed at least 17 people. As the state begins to dry off, what happens to those North Carolinians who have no flood insurance, especially the poor? And why is it that for many, flood insurance simply isn't available? Samuel Gunter, the interim executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, joins the show.
South Korean President Moon Jae In and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Pyongyang today in the hope of making more tangible gains toward a Korean peace treaty and reenergizing faltering denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington. The talks will continue for two more days. Simone Chun, a fellow at the Korea Policy Institute and a member of the Korean Peace Network, joins Brian and John.
There is a gubernatorial race taking place on the Japanese island of Okinawa, and the top issue there is the US military base. Most Okinawans want the base to be closed, but residents of other Japanese cities don't want a US base in their neighborhoods either. All of this comes after years of high-profile crimes committed against Japanese civilians by US servicepeople. The US position is that it isn't going anywhere because it needs the base to counter China. Peter Kuznick, who just returned from Okinawa and is a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University and the co-author with Oliver Stone of the book and the hit Showtime television series "The Untold History of the United States," joins the show.
The White House announced yesterday that the annual refugee quota for fiscal year 2019 would be cut to only 30,000 people, down from 45,000 last year and down from an average of 95,000 per year over the past two decades. Human rights groups are calling the decision an abandonment of the American promise to the world's neediest people. Brian and John speak with Jorge Barón, the executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
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