New coronavirus infection cases are surging across the country, with marked increases in 45 states over the past 14 days. Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that he would not be surprised to see 100,000 new infections per day in the coming weeks. Even the Republican governors of Texas, Florida, and Arizona said yesterday that they had reopened their states too soon. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he was considering a third coronavirus stimulus bill that would extend unemployment benefits.
Accusations continue to fly that Russian military intelligence paid the Taliban a bounty to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, although there is little in the way of evidence. The Wall Street Journal reported that NSA strenuously objected to the report, saying there was no evidence that it was true, while former National Security Advisor Susan Rice offered an opinion in the New York Times that it was true and that both President Trump and Vice President Pence live in a state of denial. Ben Norton, a journalist with the Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast, joins the show.
Supporters of Medicaid expansion won a narrow victory in conservative Oklahoma yesterday where a ballot measure passed with slightly over 50 percent of the vote. In Colorado, a right-wing insurgent congressional candidate who is a follower of the conspiracy group Q-Anon, defeated incumbent Republican Congressman Scott Tipton, despite being outspent 4-1. Meanwhile, mail-in ballots in Kentucky have been counted and Amy McGrath has won the Democratic nomination for Senate. She will take on Mitch McConnell in November. John speaks with Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com whose writings are at ThisCantBeHappening.net.
The Israeli government was widely expected to present to the cabinet today a plan to extend sovereignty over as much as 30 percent of the West Bank. That’s what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deal with Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz allowed for. But it didn’t happen, even after a meeting yesterday between Netanyahu, a White House envoy, and the US Ambassador to Israel. Miko Peled, the author of “The General’s Son - A Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and of "Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five,” joins the show.
Wednesday’s weekly series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, joins the show.
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