Ecuador's president Lenin Moreno said today that Julian Assange may remain inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London if he stays out of politics and avoids voicing his opinions on Twitter. He threatened that if Assange did not abide by his rules, he would "take appropriate measures."
On today's regular Friday segment covering the upcoming midterm elections, Brian and John talk about races in North Dakota, Missouri, New York, West Virginia, and Tennessee, and a self-proclaimed pedophile running for office in Virginia. Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and the host of the Facebook livestream "Coffee, Current Events & Politics" Thursdays at 9 p.m., joins the show.
President Trump announced this afternoon that his June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is back on. The president spoke with senior North Korean leader Kim Yong Chol after the North Korean held talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Brian and John speak with Medea Benjamin, an anti-war activist who is the co-founder of Code Pink, and just returned from Korea, where she was meeting with other peace activists.
Political chaos reigns in the periphery of the Eurozone. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was ousted in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence. He was replaced by socialist Pedro Sanchez. And in Italy, an unorthodox mix of populist characters takes office led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a law professor who has been accused of embellishing his resume. Dick Nichols, the correspondent for Spain and Catalonia for Green Left Weekly, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Walter Smolarek, join the show.
President Trump yesterday demanded that US allies "fix trade" in the immediate aftermath of new tariffs on goods coming from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the US and Canada were very near a renegotiated trade deal yesterday when Vice President Pence suddenly demanded that any new deal automatically expire after five years. The Canadians walked away. Dr. Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression," whose work is at www.jackrasmus.com, joins Brian and John.
When 167 schools closed in Puerto Rico a little more than a year ago, it was a painful sign that the island's economy had not recovered from a long recession. But when another 265 school closed soon after that, it sent the entire education system into a state of turmoil. Why does Puerto Rico's education system not function the way it should? Ruth Beltran, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Tampa, joins the show.
The hosts continue the regular segment of the 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 blog Left I on the News, which you can find at lefti.blogspot.com, and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell.
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