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 uprising in Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd, protests in other cities across the country against police violence, the failed renewal of FISA, Iranian tankers arriving in Venezuela, and more.
The American taxpayer has paid handsomely to develop a drug called Remdesivir which media reports say could become a major player in the fight against the coronavirus. Remdesivir was developed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences with tens of millions of dollars from three federal agencies, but it was a failure among anti-virals. Well, now it shows promise, as well as profitability. And Gilead is keeping that money and not refunding taxpayers. Annette Gaudino, State & Local Policy Director at the Treatment Action Group, joins the show with John.
Pharmaceutical companies around the world are scrambling to develop a vaccine for the Covid-19 coronavirus and nine separate vaccines are currently being developed. But there’s a big difference in the way American and Chinese pharmaceutical companies are addressing the challenge. The Chinese government has already announced that its vaccine would be “for the public good” and would be shared around the world. US vaccines would be given only for profit. Brian speaks with Ian Goodrum, a writer and digital editor for China Daily.
A court in Vancouver Canada this week ruled that the “double criminality” requirement was met in the extradition case against Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou constituted a crime in Canada, opening the way for her to be sent to the United States. Meng was arrested in December 2018 at the request of the United States, which claimed that Meng had helped the company evade US sanctions. The Chinese government has expressed outrage at the case, calling it a clear case of the US government attempting to apply its laws extraterritorially. KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice joins Brian.
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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