Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on the rapid spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, Washington’s efforts to bail out Wall Street, the state of the presidential election, and more.
The United States yesterday overtook both China and Italy in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases. But Italy far exceeds the rest of the world per capita in the number of deaths from the coronavirus to the point where bodies can’t be buried quickly enough and health care providers are becoming infected and are dying at an alarming rate. Guido Salza, a leading member of the Italian political organization Fronte Popolare, joins the show.
The United States greatly stepped up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday when the Justice Department charged him in federal court in New York City with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to commit international cocaine trafficking, with prosecutors maintaining that he led a violent drug cartel even as he rose to the leadership of his country. At the same time, the State Department offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture. The Venezuelan denounced the move as “miserable, vulgar and baseless accusations.” Brian and John speak with Leo Flores, a member of the peace group Code Pink, where he is the Latin America campaign coordinator.
World Water Day was commemorated earlier this week as a way to focus attention on the importance of fresh water and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The day took on renewed significance amid calls for a moratorium on utility shut-offs as the country and the world is gripped by the Coronavirus pandemic. Mary Grant, the director of the Public Water for All Campaign at Food & Water Watch and a policy analyst on US water utility privatization, joins the show.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
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