The two Russians accused by British authorities of being involved in the attempted assassination of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter sat for an interview yesterday with RT. Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov say they were simple tourists who had decided to take a day trip to London and Salisbury when poor weather forced them to change their plans and return to Moscow several hours earlier than they had planned.
Thursday's weekly series "Criminal Injustice" is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Today is the anniversary of the Attica uprising. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
As of this morning, more than 1.7 million people are under hurricane warnings and 1 million under mandatory evacuation orders as Hurricane Florence takes aim at North and South Carolina. Protecting human life is of primary importance during the storm. But what will happen with the 10 billion pounds of hog excrement that is stored in open lagoons across the Carolinas? The hurricane could lead to a far more significant environmental disaster if the lagoons flood. Brian and John speak with Jessica Culpepper, the Food Safety & Health Attorney at Public Justice, who has worked work for years on CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), in the US and the Carolinas.
The new head of civil rights in Donald Trump's Education Department has reopened a seven-year-old case brought by a Zionist group against Rutgers University, saying the Obama Administration, in closing the case, ignored evidence that suggested the school allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students. More importantly, the case redefines Judaism as both a religion and an ethnicity. Ariel Gold, a peace activist and the national co-director of Code Pink, joins the show.
Even though hundreds of children separated from their families at the border have been released by court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded, a significant counter narrative to the Trump Administration's efforts to reduce the number of children being held apart from their families. Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, joins Brian and John.
The French government announced that it will formally recognize its military's systematic use of torture in the Algerian war of independence in the 1950s and 1960s. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the country must confront its ugly history in Algeria "to exit from denial and to advance into truth." Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including "Blows Against the Empire: U.S. Imperialism in Crisis," joins the show.
The United Steelworkers Union says that steel companies are not passing to employees profits gained from President Trump's tariffs on foreign steel, and the union is threatening to go on strike. The contract with major steel producers expired on September 1. But the two sides are far apart, and a strike may be in the offing. Brian and John speak with Jeff Bigelow, an organizer with AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
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