In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Chris Helali, political analyst, researcher and Independent investigative journalist to discuss recently held talks in Saudi Arabia concerning the conflict in Ukraine and why this conference was really aimed at growing support for Ukraine in the Global South, how the involvement of South Africa and other BRICS countries demonstrates the complexities of a potential multipolar world order, and how recent developments in the Sahel have affected the growing non-alignment movement and how those countries interact with Russia and China.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Mazda Majidi, long-time antiwar and social justice activist who is from Iran and has written extensively on the nuclear deal and other issues pertaining to Iran and the Middle East to discuss the US military increasing its deployments to the Persian Gulf in response to its accusations that Iran is seizing civilian ships, how this deployment will unnecessarily raise tensions in the Middle East and how they could very easily boil over into outright conflict, and why the US military’s suggestion that it put troops on civilian ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz would be a provocative escalation of US aggression in the Middle East.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, co-host of the CovertAction Bulletin podcast to discuss how police departments are using facial recognition technology to investigate crimes, how the use of this technology is compounding issues of racism and militarism that already existed in policing, and how Congressional debates over the regulation of artificial intelligence are centering around the US war drive against China.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by James Early, Former Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies to discuss the 2024 presidential elections and debates among many on the American left over the question of voting for Joe Biden and the role of third-party presidential candidates and the ceasefire between the Colombian government and paramilitary groups and how the Colombian right-wing and the US have been complicit in stoking violence.
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