US-China trade is in a state of confusion this morning amid mixed signals and contradictory statements over the weekend from President Trump. First, the President said that, perhaps, the trade war was a mistake. Then he said it wasn’t. He later said that he might get even tougher on China. And he finally said that the Chinese had called him to work out a deal, which Beijing adamantly denied. In the end, the stock market is convulsing, prices, especially of farm goods, are going up, and the US is exporting less and less to China.
French President Emmanuel Macron pulled something of an end run around Donald Trump over the weekend when he invited Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to visit Biarritz, the location of the G-7 Summit, while the G-7 was still meeting. Macron and others have been pushing Trump for months to soften his stance on Iran, but to no avail. Massoud Shadjareh, the founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, joins the show.
The Amazon is on fire. It’s not just any fire. It is one of such gargantuan scale that it threatens the health of the planet. So far, the devastation is 85 percent worse than the fires there last year, which then were the worst in history. So far, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has done almost nothing to try to combat the disaster. Today, though, he said he would dispatch 40,000 troops to the state of Rondonia. How does the area known as the “lungs of the planet” recover? Brian and John speak with Fred Magdoff, professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and the co-author of “What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism.”
Besieged Hong Kong police fired warning shots over groups of demonstrators yesterday amid a night of violent protests that saw the protestors throwing Molotov cocktails and paving stones and smashing shop windows. 36 people were arrested yesterday, and the crowds continue to grow. The demonstrations began 11 weeks ago in opposition to a law that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China. Mike Wong, the outreach coordinator for the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace, joins the show.
Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian and John.
In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including the G7 summit, the U.S.-China trade war and the massive fires devastating the Amazon. Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins the show.
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