Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst, joins us to talk about the Ryanair flight that was forced to land in Belarus by fighter jets after a bomb threat was called in and that ended up in the detainment of a Belorussian dissident who was a passenger on that plane, and how this incident compares to previous incidents of airplane diversions, most notably when Evo Morales’ plane was forced to land in Austria under suspicion that it was carrying Edward Snowden. We also talk about what political consequences this incident and the international response will have on Lukashenko’s government.
K.J. Noh, global justice activist, writer, teacher, and a member of Veterans for Peace, joins us in a conversation about recently released documents by Daniel Ellsberg revealing how close the US came to a war with China over Taiwan, which could have risked a US nuclear first strike, and what the release of these documents mean for China and US relations during this period of growing tensions between the two superpowers. We also talk about how the case of Ellsberg compares to current whistleblowers like Assange and Snowden and whether they will be judged differently in the future.
Ted Rall, award-winning political cartoonist, columnist, and author, talks to us about the response by mainstream media and politicians to Israel being labeled an apartheid state, with a French politician openly using the term and US politicians avoiding it. We also talk about the battle of the full-page ads in the New York Times after some celebrities openly advocated for Palestinian rights, which sparked rebukes by pro-Israel groups and further counter-rebukes. We also talk about what has allowed Joe Biden to remain in a honeymoon period as President, and the financial impact on US media due to COVID.
In our Miss the Press segment, hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber talk about the January 6 commission that some members of Congress want to establish and others don’t, and Blinken’s comments on how the US is going to help rebuild Gaza without “restocking Hamas.”
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