The Alabama State Senate passed a hotly debated bill yesterday banning all abortion except in cases of "serious health risk" for the mother. The bill does ban abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The Senate approved this bill 25 to 6.
The US government has ordered the evacuation of all non-emergency personnel from Iraq due to alleged threats by Iranian-aligned militias in the country, a charge Iran rejects as an attempt to create a false pretense for U.S. military aggression. Meanwhile the Iranian government has announced changes in its nuclear policy as a means to express frustration that Western powers are not living up to their side of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Shabbir Razvi, an economist and political analyst, joins the show.
Pamela Turner, a 44 year old Black woman who lived in the Baytown suburb of Houston, was shot and killed by a police officer on Monday. The killing, which was captured on video, has caused outrage across the country. Brian speaks with Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including "The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy and Capitalism in Seventeenth Century North America and the Caribbean."
Palestinian and their supporters around the world are marking Nakba Day today. 71 years ago, the state of Israel was formally created, launching a mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in a brutal campaign of colonization that continues today with renewed intensity. Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, whose latest book is "Sesame Street Palestine: The Ups and Downs of Producing a Children's Program," joins the show.
San Francisco became the first major city in the country to ban the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement. The measure, passed by an overwhelming margin by the city's Board of Supervisors, cited the near certainty that the technology would be used to carry out civil rights violations. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins Brian.
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 and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell 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, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show.
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