Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to begin peace talks, and he offered security and other incentives to those who participate. Meanwhile, since the International Criminal Court began collecting material three months ago for a possible war crimes case involving Afghanistan, it has received a staggering 1.17 million statements from Afghans who say they were victims of ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or the Afghan government and the US-led coalition.
Will the United States be able to reassert it domination over Asia? After scrapping the Trans Pacific Partnership, a cornerstone of the Obama administration's "Pivot to Asia" strategy, the Trump administration has been pursuing the so-called "Quadrilateral Alliance," of US, Australia, Japan, and India. Alfred McCoy, the Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of the news book: "In the Shadows of the American Century — The Rise and Decline of US Global Power," joins the show.
In a blow to immigrant rights and basic civil liberties, the Supreme Court has ruled 5-3 to restrict the rights of immigrants held in detention centers, limiting their right to bail hearings and making it easier for authorities to detain them indefinitely. Brian and John speak with Miguel Andrade, the communications manager at the immigrant rights advocacy organization Juntos and a member of the Board of Directors of the US Human Rights Network, and Jorge Barón, the executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
The anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear took its fight to the Supreme Court on Monday with a rare petition asking the justices to require federal regulators to change rules that exclude nuclear power plants' transmission lines from environmental review. The petition marks the first time the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision to allow expedited construction of a new power plant is being challenged in the Supreme Court. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear, joins the show.
A debate has erupted over the effectiveness of the Trump and Clinton campaigns' social media operations during the 2016 election. How does social media advertising work and what is its impact on democracy? Dr. Robert Epstein, the senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, joins Brian and John.
President Trump blasted Attorney General Sessions on Twitter this morning, saying that Sessions's decision to simply refer a FISA investigation to the Justice Department's Inspector General was "disgraceful." Plus, The Atlantic has new secret messages between Trump adviser Roger Stone and
Wikileaks, which they're using to bolster Stone's claim that he was in contact with Wikileaks. The only problem is the content of the messages--they show that they were clearly not working together. Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers, and David Cobb, campaign manager of the 2016 Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka presidential campaign, join the show.
Fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is heating up as regional powers and western corporations fight amongst each other over the right to loot the country's vast mineral wealth. Brian and John speak with Kambale Musavuli, the national spokesman for The Friends of the Congo, and one of that country's leading political and cultural voices.
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