The Supreme Court ruled last night by a vote of 7-2 that refugees may be denied asylum in the United States if they crossed another country to get here and did not first apply for asylum in that country. The move reverses decades of US asylum policy.
ABC and Univision will host the third Democratic debate tonight in Houston, Texas. Only 10 candidates will participate because the others failed to qualify under Democratic National Committee rules. Foreign affairs and healthcare are expected to be the major topics. And the pundits are telling us to keep our eyes on Elizabeth Warren and whether she’s able to present herself tonight as the only viable alternative to Joe Biden. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee voted to give definition to its probe considering whether or not to recommend impeachment of President Trump. Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which hosts a livestream every week on Facebook, joins the show.
Purdue Pharma, and its owners, the Sackler family, have agreed to settle thousands of lawsuits brought against them by state and municipal governments because of the opioid crisis. Not all of the details of the deal are public yet, but Purdue will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the Sackler family will pay $3 billion in cash over seven years. Purdue is the maker of OxyContin. Brian and John speak with Dr. Louis Kyriakoudes, a professor at Middle Tennessee State University, director of the Albert Gore Research Center, and one of only three experts who has testified against Big Tobacco, according to The Nation magazine.
The Trump Administration joined 10 Latin American countries yesterday invoking a regional defense pact, ostensibly “in support of the Venezuelan people.” However, President Trump also said yesterday that ousted National Security Advisor John Bolton was “was way out of line” on Venezuela. Is this the prelude to a hot war against Venezuela? Or is the administration moving in the other direction? Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil,” joins the show.
65 million years ago a city-sized asteroid slammed into the earth, causing an unprecedented mass extinction that devastated life across the planet and killed off the dinosaurs. Now, groundbreaking new research gives us deeper insight into what that fateful day was like. Dr. Sean Gulick, research professor at the University of Texas, Austin, specialist in the role of catastrophism in the geologic record, and author of the new study, joins Brian and John.
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. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), joins the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.
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