With an update on the arrest, on July 21,2024, of Paul Watson on a Japanese warrant     This is an archival TUC Radio program from 2016. You will hear Captain Paul Watson describe his extraordinary journey saving whales and life in the oceans. Paul Watson was co-founder of Greenpeace and CEO of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He was commander on seven different Sea Shepherd ships since 1978 and now, at age 73, leads vessels under the flag of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. Thanks to the French Thinkerview collective for the interview. This archival program has contemporary significance: On October 23, 2024, the day this program is being placed back into distribution, Paul Watson remains in prison in the capital city [ . . . ] Read More

Against the Threats of Use of Nuclear Weapons by NATO, the U.S., Russia and Israel     The investigative journalist and acclaimed author, specializing in weapons and war, Annie Jacobsen, has come closer than other investigators to the razor edge of secrecy that surrounds the current nuclear war machine. Her book, Nuclear War, is based on hundreds of interviews with war planners and engineers – plus recently declassified documents. Annie Jacobsen, reminds us that a Doomsday killing machine has been designed, capable of destroying not just two cities but life on this planet – first with fire and heat and then seven to ten years of darkness and ice sheets from nuclear winter. Annie Jacobsen’s book, Nuclear War, A Scenario, has 373 pages of [ . . . ] Read More

On October 2, the French author and film producer Frank Barat invited him to a conversation    Yanis Varoufakis comments on the role of global powers, particularly the United States, in perpetuating the war on Gaza. Frank Barat asks him about the unparalleled violence, the media’s portrayal of the situation, and the historical context of Zionism. These are excerpts from a 35 minute interview of the Greek university lecturer, economist and politician Yanis Varoufakis. Since 2018, he has been Secretary-General of the Democracy in Europe movement, a left-wing pan-European party he co-founded in 2016. Previously, he was Greece’s Minister of Finance during much of 2015. Varoufakis’ most recent book is Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. You can find the full 35 minute interview under [ . . . ] Read More

The former British diplomat Alastair Crooke is interviewed by Judge Andrew Napolitano    Hassan Nasrallah led Hezbollah in Lebanon for more than three decades and made it into a military and political force. Nasrallah’s killing in a massive Israeli air attack in a southern suburb of Beirut raises fears of a dangerous expansion of Israel’s wars – even more deeply involving the U.S. Alastair Crooke was a ranking figure in both British Intelligence with MI6 and European Union diplomacy. His specialty is political Islam. He was interviewed by Judge Andrew Napolitano on his channel: Judging Freedom on Sept. 30, 2024. DATE: – Streamed live on Sep 30, 2024. CREDIT: Andrew Napolitano’s podcast channel: Judging Freedom The longer interview is posted on Napolitano’s podcast channel, Judging [ . . . ] Read More

When Penguin Random House prepared the release of Annie Jacobsen’s most recent book: Nuclear War, A Scenario; for early 2024, they did not anticipate that it would appear at a time of heightened risk of a nuclear war. The risks include casual threats of the use of nuclear weapons over Ukraine or in the Middle East; as well as the actual attacks or threats to the nuclear plants in Ukraine and Russia. Annie Jacobsen’s book is based on dozens of exclusive interviews with military and civilian experts who built the modern nuclear weapons and launch systems. Annie Jacobsen and Professor Steven Starr explain how nuclear weapons and the highly automated systems that set them off, have become so much more deadly than in [ . . . ] Read More

The Grayzone, Col Larry Wilkerson, Miami Herald and the New York Times     Print and Internet media in mid September 2024 were filled with speculation whether the U.S. would agree with the UK to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia. The Miami Herald from September 16, 2024, wrote: US may let Ukraine fire missiles deep inside Russia. Here’s why experts say it’s risky. The leading argument by politicians for an incursion into Russia is the often repeated statement that Putin plans to take over all of Ukraine and move on from there. A secret guarded for over two years now is the fact that the fist meeting to end the war, was held four days after the start [ . . . ] Read More

Replay of the Fukushima Symposium, 2013, the first comprehensive analysis of the health and environmental damage done by one of the worst nuclear accidents of our time      Steven Starr says: “Long lived radio-nuclides such as Cesium 137 are something new to us as a species. Although they are invisible to our senses they are millions of times more poisonous than most of the common poisons we are familiar with. They emit radiation, invisible forms of matter and energy, that we might compare to fire. It’s not a fire that can be scattered of suffocated because it burns at the atomic level, it comes from the disintegration of single atoms”. Starr gives an update as to what people in Japan are facing now [ . . . ] Read More

The team studies birds, insects, microbes, and plants at over 1,000 sites, returning year after year. They found significantly increased rates of genetic damage      When the biologist, Professor Tim Mousseau, concluded this talk by showing heartbreaking pictures of the birds of Chernobyl and their tumors and birth defects, the physician and anti nuclear campaigner Dr. Helen Caldicott stepped up to the podium to thank him. She said: “I want to pay homage to Tim Mousseau, who with his colleagues is actually endangering his life by going into extremely high radioactive areas doing pioneering work, which is going to change the concept of radiation exposure to humans. What is happening to the animals, the insects and the plants is going to happen [ . . . ] Read More

Now campaigns across the world demand to keep nuclear power plants open.    A controversy between Helen Caldicott and Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton. He wants to build seven new nuclear reactors On June 18, 2024, the Australian opposition leader, with his shadow cabinet, dropped the bombshell of making the upcoming elections in Australia a referendum on returning to nuclear power plant construction. One day later ABC News Australia broadcast an interview with David Speers. They call this a decision between renewable energy and nuclear. Only three days later, On June 22, 2024, the Australian antinuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott joined the debate with a line of reasoning that nobody had yet mentioned: Safety. Helen Caldicott is best known for having founded several associations dedicated to [ . . . ] Read More

Microsoft, Twitter/X, Facebook, Amazon and Google demand electricity for Data Centers –     On June 18, 2024, the US Congress passed the misnamed “Advance Act” that will provide electric power to data-centers. The Advance Act aims to expedite the development of next generation nuclear reactors and pays to support aging ones. It directs the Department of Energy to reduce regulatory cost for advanced reactors and provides deployment incentives. Joe Biden signed the Advance Act into law on July 9, 2024. All this while so-called modern societies have not yet cleaned up the damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. And the so-called “spent” highly radioactive nuclear fuel is still piling up at the power plants. With one exception, Onkalo [ . . . ] Read More

A new argument is emerging in favor of using nuclear to cover the increased power demands of Artificial Intelligence, and – almost as an afterthought – fuel the green transition to solar and wind. Legislation in Congress, such as the Advance Act, supported by the Biden administration, has already passed, with bi—partisan support, as recently as June 2024. It is written to fund all stages of the cycle – from uranium mining to accelerated building and licensing of new nuclear power plants. Strangely the mining industry has always prepared for the new market in uranium. And we all would have known had we attended their conferences. The program begins with an interview from the World’s Premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention. They [ . . . ] Read More

Helen Caldicott interviews Michael Madsen on the building of the world’s first storage site for nuclear waste – Archive      This archival TUC Radio program comes to you in August of 2024 in the face of the so-called nuclear renaissance driven by Artificial Intelligence This is the conclusion of a conversation between Helen Caldicott and Michael Madsen whose film, Into Eternity, premiered in the US in February 2011. Helen called Madsen “One of the more extraordinary people I’ve ever interviewed”. This is a thought provoking exchange between the veteran campaigner, Helen Caldicott, who dedicated her life to alerting us to the nuclear danger, and the young Danish artist. He introduces thoughts about civilization, language, danger and eternity. Into Eternity is a documentary about [ . . . ] Read More

Documentary on the first permanent storage for waste from nuclear power plants in the world       Blasted into bedrock of the island of Olkiluoto in Finland on the shores of the Baltic Sea, Onkalo has to remain secure for 100,000 years. Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen’s documentary of the building in progress of Onkalo is a meditation on eternity, insanity and the impossibility of projecting anything 100,000 years into the future. The film also proves eloquently and with expert statements the terrible danger that arises from so-called “spent” nuclear fuel from power plants and makes us see Fukushima with very different eyes. This radio program presents excerpts from the film and its amazing sound design. DATE: film released in 2010 CREDIT: Filmmaker Michael Madsen

Dr. Shir Hever with Nora Barrows Friedman and Ali Abunimah      On July first, 2024, the New York Times published an anonymous report from inside the leadership of the IDF, The Israeli Defense Forces. Top generals said they are convinced that an exhausted and depleted Israeli army cannot win and are demanding a cease fire. In reaction to the NY-Times article, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the following day, that the war in Gaza will not end until Hamas is destroyed. And that the “IDF will continue fighting and improve our readiness for a war in the north with Lebanon.”  Dr. Shir Hever is an Israeli living in exile. His PhD is from the Free University Berlin. He is the military embargo [ . . . ] Read More

With Yanis Varoufakis, Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate   Ghida Fakhry interviews Yanis Varoufakis about the new wave of nationalism sweeping across Europe. Fakhry   Lebanese-British journalist. She was a lead anchor for the global news channel Al Jazeera English at its launch in Washington D.C. and now works with TRT World – a Turkish public broadcaster in English 24 hours a day. The former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and acclaimed author. Since 2018, he has been Secretary-General of DIEM25, the Democracy in Europe Movement. That’s a left-wing pan-European political party that he co-founded in 2016. They spoke on Jul 12, 2024. The conversation was published on YouTube under the title: Tipping Point: Europe’s Surge to the Right That’s [ . . . ] Read More

Which country is the worst enemy for Ukraine – Russia or the U.S.      When Judge Napolitano began his interview with Jeffrey Sachs, his opening question was: Which country is the worst enemy for Ukraine – Russia or the United States? And Sachs makes the case that the loss of life and infrastructure in Ukraine in the proxy war against Russia makes the US a candidate for worst enemy. He also quotes Henry Kissinger who said: “To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.” Jeffrey Sachs also explores how promises of NATO membership to Ukraine may have fueled the ongoing conflict; and why the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in March 2022 [ . . . ] Read More

Yanis Varoufakis and DiEM25     Immediately after it became known that the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, was set free from a prison in London, and had boarded a plane towards Guam, the DiEM25 channel launched a conversation between Yanis Varoufakis, Srećko Horvat, Karin De Rigo and others. Here are excerpts from that conversation. Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and politician. He is Secretary-General of DiEM25, a radical political movement in Europe that he co-founded in 2016.  Srecko Horvat is a Croatian philosopher, author, political activist and co-founder of DiEM25. And Karin De Rigo is coordinator of the local DiEM25 group in Berlin. They spoke while the plane, carrying Julian Assange to freedom, was still in the air, heading to Guam. By [ . . . ] Read More

With Tony Gonzales of the American Indian Movement West    For the first time in 15 years, Leonard Peltier had a full parole hearing on Monday, June 10, at the United States Penitentiary at Coleman, Fla.  The decision whether he will be free will be rendered by mid July 2024. Peltier is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe. He has been incarcerated for 48 years for the alleged killing of two FBI agents at Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in June 1975. For five decades, Peltier has maintained his innocence and hoped for the chance to clear his name. Peltier had a controversial trial marred by falsified testimony, and fabricated evidence. And criticism of the trial even came from judges involved in the case: [ . . . ] Read More

How close are we coming to nuclear war?    Ray McGovern is interviewed by Judge Andrew Napolitano on his Podcast Judging Freedom. McGovern served as CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. His duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief. After retiring from the CIA, McGovern became a commentator on intelligence-related issues and was one of the best informed critics of the war on Iraq. Once a week Judge Andrew Napolitano interviews the same group of progressive commentators on war and current affairs. He spoke with Ray McGovern on June 17, 2024. You can find the video of this interview on Youtube on the channel: Judging Freedom. [ . . . ] Read More

The Biden Administration authorized Ukraine to use American Weapons to attack inside Russia    Once a week Judge Andrew Napolitano interviews the same group of progressive commentators on war and current affairs. On June 4, 2024 he spoke to Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs is an American economist, and public policy analyst. He is known for his work on Sustainable Economics and the fight to end climate change and poverty. He has worked as an economic adviser to governments in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He works with the United Nations as President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Sachs has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: [ . . . ] Read More

Edward Said’s last major speech on Palestine before his death in September 2003      Among the over twelve hundred programs in the TUC Radio archives this is one of my favorites. That’s based on the respect I have for the speaker, Edward Said, and the ongoing sadness that, to this day, so little is known about the history of Palestine. This is Edward Said’s last major speech on Palestine, the war on Iraq and the Bush administration. On September 25, 2003, a message made its way around the world. Edward Said, Palestinian American, world famous professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and fearless defender of the Palestinian cause had died of leukemia in New York City, far from the [ . . . ] Read More

The historian Ilan Pappe comments on the missile launch towards Tel Aviv, the ICC ruling, and his own interrogation by the FBI     Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian and political scientist. He is now a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. His best known book is The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Based on declassified British and Israeli government documents, the book explains that the expulsions of Palestinians were executed based on a plan drawn up in 1947 by Israel’s future leaders. Ilan Pappe left Israel in 2008 after being condemned in the Knesset. A minister of education had called for him to be sacked. Frank Barat, the French activist, [ . . . ] Read More

On May 18, 2024, Paul Salvatori, Presenter & Senior Producer at TRT World, invited Professor John Mearsheimer for a conversation     Professor Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and international relations scholar who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer is best known for describing the interaction between great powers as being primarily driven by the desire to achieve regional hegemony. Mearsheimer is also internationally known for the 2007 book he co-authored with Stephen Walt, entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”. The core argument is that the Israel Lobby wields disproportionate influence over U.S. policy – both domestic and international. Mearsheimer has recently been in high [ . . . ] Read More

and The conflation of antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government         Within a week, in early May of 2024, the renowned professor of economics put out two commentaries on his Wolff Responds podcast that break the mainstream media taboo, or misinformation, on the responses by university administrators and police to campus opposition to the war on Gaza. Richard Wolff is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs of the New School in New York City. This is also a personal response by Prof. Wolff to the extraordinary harsh actions by the New School administrators to the pro-Palestinian encampments at the university. They called the New York City [ . . . ] Read More

With 2024 Updates of the 1872 Mining Law   Even though mines – from iron to copper to gold to minerals, such as lithium mines can be so huge that they can be seen from space – and are destructive to land and water and forests – recent proposed legislation in the US aims at expanding mining. It turns out that, ironically, the transition to a green economy with wind turbines, solar arrays, electric vehicles and battery storage requires an unprecedented increase in mining for lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, tungsten, aluminum, graphite and more. Here is an archival TUC Radio program on Mining in America. In 1995 I bought a beat up RV, put all my radio equipment in it and took off [ . . . ] Read More

Excessive screen time on phones coincides with the sharp increase in depression, anxiety, and self-harm in young people     Jonathan Haidt is the author of The Anxious Generation and the Epidemic of Childhood Mental Illness, published in March 2024. He is in conversation with Tristan Harris, an ex-employee of Google. Harris had a key role in the Netflix documentary film The Social Dilemma and explained how the design of social media platforms manipulates people’s views, emotions, and behavior. Thanks to the Commonwealth Club of California Jonathan Haidt and Tristan Harris appeared together on stage on April 1, 2024. This is a 24 minute excerpt of their conversation. For the full hour recording, that also shows the images of the graphs that present the [ . . . ] Read More

A crucial effort to ship humanitarian supplies to Gaza and bring about a ceasefire    “We are calling on countries around the world to pressure Israel to allow us “free and safe passage” to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.” That’s a message from Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of CODEPINK. She is one of hundreds of participants from 32 countries that are now gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, to sail on three ships to Gaza, carrying 5,500 tons of humanitarian aid. TUC Radio is helping spread the word of this crucial effort by quoting George Galloway from the UK, and former U.S. Colonel Ann Wright in an interview with Eleanor Goldfield of Project Censored. Also a brief clip from a news report [ . . . ] Read More

Les Leopold is the author of Wall Street’s War on Workers   Chris Hedges interviewed Leopold on April 5, 2024 on The Real News Network. Hedges is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister. He hosts the program The Chris Hedges Report on The Real News Network. Leopold co-founded the Labor Institute and wrote How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the working-class – And What to Do About It. Published on Feb. 22, 2024 This is a 26 minute excerpt of an extraordinary 54 minute video that I urge you to see on line under the title: Billionaires are pillaging America. How to fight back? Please make use of the facts and strategies presented in this program, they might play a crucial role [ . . . ] Read More

How to reach a sustainable future with renewable energy    Where will all the metals and minerals come from that we need for solar panels, windmills, batteries and electric cars? Simon Michaux did 18 years of development and research in the mines of Australia. He knows that minerals and metals are already running short and that we need to create a circular economy based on recycling. In 2015 Simon Michaux came to Europe to learn industrial recycling and the circular economy at the University of Leiden, Netherlands. Michaux is now Associate Professor at GTK, the Geological Survey of Finland. He works with governments, United Nations agencies, non profits and financial institutions to help develop the renewable grid. He was interviewed by Tony from Sustainable [ . . . ] Read More

They spoke on March 28, 2024 before an overflow audience   Here are highlights from an almost two-hour event streamed Live and archived by the Real News Network. Norman Finkelstein is the author of many books, including the Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering; and Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom. He received his PhD from Princeton University’s Department of Politics and has held faculty positions at Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges, and Rutgers, New York, and DePaul Universities. Finkelstein’s personal experience shaped his life. His mother survived the Majdanek concentration camp, his father survived Auschwitz. Chris Hedges was the Middle East Bureau chief for the New York Times and a vocal critic of the invasion of Iraq. He left the [ . . . ] Read More

Why the rich can’t save anybody – not even themselves
                            2024 Tribute – Updated Archive:  Parenti predicted the financial crisis and said that giant corporate capitalism – by it’s very nature – is an apocalyptic system. When unregulated the built in elements of ever increased growth may well bring the whole system down. And he described the growing national debt not as a tragic mistake but as a means to shift ever more money from the tax payers to the financial institutions in the form of interest payments. This speech is an analysis of the many structural flaws of a capitalist system that puts it on a permanent collision course with democracy. Recorded on August 23, 2008 at the closing reception [ . . . ] Read More

A People’s History of Ancient Rome with Lessons for Today   Who was Julius Caesar, a dictator or a populist? And who really was Brutus, who murdered him on the Ides of March? A young hero or a participant in a deep seated conspiracy? This intriguing lecture by the noted author, speaker, activist and scholar Michael Parenti provides surprising new insights and parallels to today that are both shocking and amusing. This rebroadcast is part of the very popular and ever expanding series on what Parenti called Real History, a different and intriguing reading of a surprisingly large number all too familiar stories. Parenti spoke about his Pulitzer Price nominated book: The Assassination of Julius Caesar, a people’s history of ancient Rome. He [ . . . ] Read More

Nuland was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the third highest ranking US Diplomat position     Glenn Greenwald is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer. He became a vocal critic of the Iraq War and American foreign policy. In 2014, he cofounded The Intercept and was the editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald now is self-publishing on Substack. The Hill is a source for policy and political news. Glenn Greenwald was interviewed on their news commentary show, “Rising”. Five days after the Greenwald interview the former CIA analyst Ray McGovern speculated that political differences between Nuland and Biden administration officials may have led to her surprise ouster. Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration [ . . . ] Read More

The Israeli historian Ilan Pappe is interviewed by Dareen Abughaida on Al Jazeera English     Dareen Abughaida is a Palestinian-Lebanese broadcast journalist based in Doha, Qatar. She’s currently working as the principal news presenter and host for Al Jazeera English. Dareen previously worked for Bloomberg L.P., CNBC, the World Bank, and the United Nations. Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour English-language news channel. It is funded by the government of Qatar and the first world-wide English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Al Jazeera broadcasts in over 150 countries and territories, and has a global audience of 430 million people. Dareen Abughaida interviewed Ilan Pappe on Feb 25, 2024. Pappe is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. This [ . . . ] Read More

DiEM25 goes Live Stream while London’s High Court decides whether Julian Assange can be extradited to the US    DiEM25 is a pan-European, progressive movement. They aim to democratize the EU before it disintegrates. DiEM25 members met by ZOOM on Feb 20, 2024, to comment on the court proceedings. The moderator, Mehran Khalili, is an adviser to DiEM25 and writes about censorship and misinformation. Yanis Varoufakis, economics professor and acclaimed author, was Minister of Finance in 2015, negotiating on behalf of the Greek government during their debt crisis. Judith Meyer from Berlin, Germany, is a linguist and author and has been working for DiEM25 since 2016. This recording, The War on Truth – Julian Assange with Yanis Varoufakis, is part of a 58 minute Live [ . . . ] Read More

Hosted by the Surfrider Foundation, San Diego, in January 2024  Matt Simon is the author of the book: A Poison Like No Other, How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies. He traces how the plastic we are using and discarding breaks into ever smaller pieces that poison water, soil and the atmosphere. Scientists have found micro plastics in the deepest ocean trenches and in snow of the North and South Poles. They are in our food, and from there travel though our bodies. And most plastic is made from a mix of toxic petro-chemicals. Matt Simon has been a science journalist at Wired magazine for nine years. He covers a range of beats, including biology, robotics, climate change, and of course, [ . . . ] Read More

How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies Welcome to this program from TUC Radio’s Archives, first broadcasts on Jan. 3, 2023. Almost all plastics in use today are so called “petrochemicals,” products made from fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas. This industry is booming and plastics are showing up not just in manufacturing, construction and road building, but in our personal environment, our homes, households, clothes, furniture, and the food distribution systems we depend on. The very thing that makes plastic so useful – its toughness – means it never really goes away. It just gets smaller and smaller: eventually small enough to enter the atmosphere and be inhaled, or be absorbed by food crops that are watered with sewage sludge. [ . . . ] Read More

Excerpts from an interview by 99ZuEins – a podcast on the channel 99ToOne Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and politician. He has been an outspoken dissident voice in the western discourse on the ongoing war in Gaza. Since 2018, Varoufakis has been Secretary-General of Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25, a left-wing pan-European political party he co-founded in 2016. Nadim, from 99ToOne, spoke with him about the nature of the war, the purpose and function of international institutions and humanitarian law, as well as the peculiar stance of the EU and Germany towards the war. These are excerpts from a 45 minute interview,recorded on Feb. 2, 2024. Thanks to Nadim at 99ZuEins – a podcast on the [ . . . ] Read More

They are guests on Judging Freedom, hosted by Judge Andrew Napolitano On January 26, 2024 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide as it wages war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip but stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire. Craig Murray is a Scottish author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat. He is a political activist, campaigning for human rights and for transparency in global politics. Jeffrey Sachs is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is an SDG Advocate for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals Judge Andrew Napolitano is an American former [ . . . ] Read More

Israel’s War on Gaza waged from Dec. 27/2008 to Jan. 18/2009 – TUC Radio Archive The story of an international campaign to bring aid to Gaza and break the blockade is inspiring at this time – and here is the audio from a film I made of a talk given by George Galloway in Berkeley, CA, in 2009. Israel’s war on Gaza from Dec 27, 2008 to Jan 18, 2009, made more than 100,000 people homeless. Both Israel and Egypt had closed the borders to Gaza, preventing all aid from coming in. British Member of Parliament George Galloway broke the siege of Gaza with a 2 mile long humanitarian aid convoy in early 2009. They entered through the Rafah gate on the [ . . . ] Read More

How Israel Indoctrinates its People Miko Peled talks about the distortions of history and why he left Israel for California. Miko Peled’s father was a general in the Israeli army. Miko was a member of Israel’s Special Forces, although disillusioned with the military he moved from his role as a combatant to that of a medic. After the 1982 war in Lebanon, he buried his service pin. He is the author of The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine. As son of one of the founding fathers of Israel, General Matti Peled, Miko was guaranteed a privileged life in Israel. You will hear some of the reasons why he left Israel and now lives in California. Chris Hedges is an author, [ . . . ] Read More

Fred Gray, just out of law school, had made a commitment to destroy everything segregated in his home state of Alabama Rosa Parks was only Fred Gray’s second case, after Claudette Colvin, a teenager, who nine months earlier had been the first to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and in turn inspired Rosa Parks. When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for violating the segregated seating ordinance, 26-year-old Martin Luther King was chosen to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and 24-year-old Fred Gray became his and the movement’s lawyer. Gray’s legal victory in the federal courts ended the boycott 381 days later. Fred Gray won scores of civil rights cases in education, voting rights, transportation, and health. [ . . . ] Read More

Interview by Rachel Donald on PlanetCritical Simon Michaux is associate professor at the Geological Survey of Finland. He and his team advise the Finnish government on how to phase out fossil fuels. As former mining engineer Michaux warns that we just don’t have enough minerals and materials in the Earth’s crust to develop a fully renewable economy along the standards we have come to expect – and he offers solutions. When Part ONE of this program went to air it caught the attention of Alex Smith, host of the weekly Radio Ecoshock Show. He asked my permission to run the TUC Radio program on Ecoshock and of course I said Yes and welcomed the chance to be heard [ . . . ] Read More

Silent Night in trenches of the Western Front The Christmas Truce was an unofficial cease-fire on parts of the Western Front. Guns fell silent for one to several days. Soldiers emerged from the trenches and talked, exchanged gifts and kicked around a soccer ball. Trenches were close in some places, separated by 50 yards or less. The Story of the Christmas Truce WWI is a documentary film about this spontaneous cease-fire. Thanks to historians Peter Hart, Taff Gillingham and Robin Schaefer, and their choice of rare documentary photos, footage and archived letters from soldiers of both sides. This archival TUC Radio program first went into distribution on December 13, 2022. By coincidence on the same day that nearly 1,000 faith leaders called for [ . . . ] Read More

Interview by Rachel Donald on PlanetCritical When I found this conversation and decided to re-broadcast I was intrigued by Simon Michaux’s rare expertise in mining – and by the premise that we can’t go green without going small. Our fossil fueled economy is destabilizing the planet. But a renewable economy as it is designed now makes unsustainable demands on minerals and materials of this planet. Simon Michaux is an associate professor at the geological survey of Finland. He is a problem solver in the mining industry and now the industrial recycling industry. Most of his current scientific papers deal with the tasks to completely phase out fossil fuels in Finland. Credit and thanks to Rachel Donald – host of PlanetCritical, [ . . . ] Read More

https://tucradio.org/audio/30secPromo_climate_toll_of_war_TUC.mp3

https://tucradio.org/audio/30secPromo_climate_toll_of_war_TUC.mp3

From Las Vegas, Nevada, the US podcaster Cyrus Janssen spoke to the British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey for an extraordinary history lesson on Palestine and Gaza Hip hop artist Lowkey, AKA Kareem Dennis, is also an academic and holds a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS University of London, the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies. He is also a political campaigner, patron of the Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Peace and Justice Project. This interview was posted on December 3, 2023, by the US podcaster Cyrus Janssen on YouTube under the title: British Iraqi Activist Lowkey Reveals TRUTH About Israel and United States. DATES: Dec. 3, 2023 Location: Internet CREDIT: Podcaster Cyrus Janssen’s YouTube channel

This year’s UN climate summit will be the biggest in history – and the first held in a major Petrostate – which is ironic since, according to current climate science, phasing out fossil fuels is our most urgent task. Dr. Sultan al-Jaber has been nominated by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates to preside over COP28. He is the managing director and group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Al Gore, the former US vice-president, tells Simon Mundy in a Financial Times interview why he thinks this year’s COP28 climate change talks are likely to fail. The interview was published on October 24, 2023 under the title: Al Gore on Big Oil, COP28, and the fight for [ . . . ] Read More

False Solutions on the agenda of the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP28, in Dubai This is a report from the webinar held on October 26 by the Indigenous Climate Action. Panelists from Hoopa Valley, Bear Clan, Sandia Pueblo and Yuchi presented their in-depth research into false solution to the climate crisis. By now there is agreement that the burning of fossil fuels is the major cause of global heating. In spite of 28 years of annual meetings of the UN Climate Change Conferences heating has increased. In July, 2023, the global average temperature was the highest on record. And the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, announced in August 2023 that Fossil Fuel Subsidies surged to a record $7 Trillion. In response members of [ . . . ] Read More

The Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) and Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) are Unpacking False Solutions ICA held a webinar on Oct. 26, 2023, to warn us of false solutions to global heating, such as carbon pricing, natural gas, hydrogen, hydroelectricity, geo engineering, carbon capture and net zero emissions. The moderator is Carol Monture, the climate leadership Coordinator at the Indigenous Climate Action (ICA). She is Mohawk, Wolf Clan, from Six Nations of the Grand River territory.   The panelist are: Julia Bernal from the Indigenous Nations of Sandia Pueblo and Yuchi, is the executive director for Public Action Alliance, Albuquerque, NM Sage Goodleaf-Labelle was born to the Bear Clan of the Kanien’kehá:ka nation, in what is now Canada. She is a student at McGill University. Thomas Joseph is [ . . . ] Read More

On November 3rd, 2023, The Ralph Nader Radio Hour issued this urgent appeal This is a 25 minute excerpt from a one hour special edition of Nader’s weekly talk show broadcast on the Pacifica Radio Network and as podcast. Ralph Nader, former head of Public Citizen, is an author, lecturer, attorney and talk-show host. Nader’s regular co-host Steve Skrovan introduces this special edition calling for Ceasefire Now in Gaza. Nader is in conversation with Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. She is a former officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, with diplomatic postings in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut. Please go to the website www.ralphnaderradiohour.com to listen to the full one hour version of Ceasefire Now. DATES: Nov. 3, 2023 Location: [ . . . ] Read More

UC Berkeley lecture by the Israeli historian, held on October 19, 2023 Ilan Pappe begins with declaring that to understand the situation today we need an accurate definition of Zionism since it was the leading ideology of the settler colonial movement that took over Palestine. Pappe compares the US history and the elimination of the Native inside what is now the US and the post 1948 conquest of Palestine. There is now growing criticism of racism and land-grab by settlers in the US, while the world tends to excuse the Israeli settlers for their ongoing land-grabs. And expulsions did not stop with the 1948 war that established Israel. Pappe says that Israel removed 300,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza [ . . . ] Read More

UC Berkeley lecture by the Israeli historian, held on October 19, 2023 Ilan Pappe is one of Israel’s New Historians. Since the release of classified British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, they have offered a critical view of Israel’s creation in 1948, and the corresponding flight and expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians in the same year. Pappe has written that the expulsions were not decided on an ad hoc basis, as other historians have argued, but were done in accordance with Plan Dalet, drawn up in 1947 by Israel’s future leaders. In a 2004 interview, Pappe said “The aim has always been, and it still remains, to have as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians in [ . . . ] Read More

Frank Barat interviews the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe The bombing of Gaza by Israeli planes and missiles had just begun when Barat and Pappe had this conversation on October 15, 2023. Ilan Pappe is best known for his book: ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ Oxford, 2006. It is the history of the 1948 Palestine-Israel War and how around a million people were expelled from their homes at gunpoint, civilians were massacred, and hundreds of Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed. Pappe used newly declassified Israeli documents to prove that ’transfer’ aka ethnic cleansing – was an integral part of a carefully planed strategy in the 1948 war that led to the founding of Israel. Ilan Pappe is Professor of History at the [ . . . ] Read More

The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) brought members of The Black Hive to a Teach-In at The New School to address toxic sites in Texas and the ongoing Flint Water Crisis You will hear from: Natalie Jeffers, Director of the Black Hive. Marsha Jackson and Mr. Alan McGill, from Dallas County, Texas. Nayyira, from Flint, Michigan (Flint Rising) and Aya de Leon, novelist and activist. This is the last of a three part program bringing you rarely heard voices from that 4 hour event. You heard in part one from indigenous grassroots opposition to pipelines, geo-engineering, hydrogen, production, carbon capture and sequestration. On the second program you heard about resistance to US military bases on the Mariana Islands, and speakers from Puerto Rico and [ . . . ] Read More

Voices from the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and Pakistan demand an end to fossil fuel use and war The Indigenous Environmental Network – IEN – brought members and allies from across the world to New York City to take part in the 75,000 strong “March to End Fossil Fuels”. The march filled the streets of New York City ahead of the UN Climate Ambition Summit. The IEN also held Teach-Ins and press conferences and on last week’s radio program you heard from indigenous grassroots opposition to pipelines, geo-engineering hydrogen production, carbon capture and sequestration. On this program I’m bringing you extraordinary speakers from the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and Pakistan. They spoke at the Sept. 19, 2023, event “LIVE from The New [ . . . ] Read More

The Indigenous Environmental Network brought members and friends to NYC to voice their opposition to false climate solutions Section ONE addresses pipelines, geo-engineering and hydrogen production from fossil fuels and nuclear power, and carbon capture and sequestration. On September 17, 2023, over 75,000 joined the New York City “March to End Fossil Fuels” making it the largest demonstration pressuring President Biden to stop supporting the fossil fuel industry. The march took place ahead of the UN Climate Ambition Summit (Sept. 20, 2023). That was a first-of-its-kind meeting hosted by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He is asking heads of state to bring concrete steps to keep fossil fuels in the ground when they come to Dubai in December for the upcoming COP28, [ . . . ] Read More

Chris Hedges in conversation with Craig Murray Chris Hedges is the former Middle East bureau chief of the New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed author. Craig Murray was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan and now is one of Britain’s most important human rights campaigners. Thanks to The Real News Network for broadcasting Hedges’ conversation with Craig Murray on September 15, 2023. That’s a date of great importance as the extradition of Julian Assange from Great Britain to the US might be only weeks away. Hounded by US law enforcement and its allies for more than a decade, Assange has been stripped of all personal and civil liberties for the crime of exposing the extent of US atrocities during the [ . . . ] Read More

McCully was the executive director of the International Rivers Network This is the second part of a program on the epic struggle over dams, displaced people and the environment, that I recorded for TUC Radio in 2006. Patrick McCully was then the executive director of the International Rivers Network. They are supporting communities around the world that are impacted by destructive dams. On their 2023 website International Rivers Network dot org list 217 dam projects around the world that they have helped delay or stop. Globally the building of mega dam-projects is slowing down but the world is left with dams and reservoirs that are decaying and becoming a danger to people downstream. Just this morning, as I’m preparing this program for [ . . . ] Read More

Jacques Leslie is a foreign correspondent turned non-fiction writer who once covered the war on Vietnam for the Los Angeles Times Jacques Leslie discovered when he wrote for Harper’s that “At the core of every argument about water are dams, the modern pyramids, generators of extravagantly apportioned electricity, water storage, and environmental and social disasters.“ Millions of people have been displaced and some of the most fertile land been drowned. In spite of their size dams are not forever. Sooner or later they will all silt up and become expensive waterfalls. They pose a constant looming danger to life downstream when they fall into disrepair or are damaged by earthquakes or acts of war. A battle is being fought by independent scientists and [ . . . ] Read More

Johnson’s name is being quoted in the 2023 work of analysts and historians Today’s analysts and historians say that one statement is more timely now than when Johnson first made it in 2006 that “nothing is more dangerous to democracy, than military expansion and war” and argued that the U.S. is in danger of internal collapse, due in large part to the vast expenditures required to maintain its ever-expanding empire. Chalmers Johnson is the acclaimed author of Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire and Nemesis. He is a former analyst for the CIA and professor emeritus of the University of California San Diego. Chalmers Johnson was interviewed by the California based author of “Imperial San Francisco”, Gray Brechin, in March 2007. DATES: March, 2007 Location: [ . . . ] Read More

Johnson’s name is being quoted in the 2023 work of analysts and historians. ONE of TWO Chalmers Johnson wrote that “nothing is more dangerous to democracy, than military expansion and war” and argued that the U.S. is in danger of internal collapse, due in large part to the vast expenditures required to maintain its ever-expanding empire. Chalmers Johnson is the acclaimed author of Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire and Nemesis. He is a former analyst for the CIA and professor emeritus of the University of California San Diego. He was interviewed by the California based author of “Imperial San Francisco”, Gray Brechin, in March 2007. DATES: March, 2007 Location: MLK Junior High in Berkeley

An August 9, 2023, conversation with Robert Scheer McGovern told Bob Scheer: “I spent six decades following Soviet and now Russian policy. Most of that time professionally… I have never, never had so much fear that we are on the cusp of a nuclear catastrophe.” They discuss why the danger is so high right now, and how a peace agreement could be reached. Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst on the Soviet Union and Russia from 1963 to 1990 and advisor to seven US presidents. He prepared the President’s Daily Brief. In 2006 he protested the CIA’s involvement in torture. Bob Scheer came out of the student movement of the 1960 and was and remains a journalist and author of books. He [ . . . ] Read More

Daniel Ellsberg at the gates of Lawrence Livermore Lab There are two locations where all US nuclear weapons are designed. Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California is one of them. Since 1983 Tri-Valley CAREs has monitored nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up throughout the US, with a special focus on Livermore Lab. Every year on August 6 Tri-Valley CAREs and supporters gather at the gates of Livermore Lab to remember the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This year, 2023, the silent vigil was also dedicated to Daniel Ellsberg. He had been at the gates of Livermore Lab many times in the past and gotten arrested for blocking the entrance. He died in June of this year at age 93. [ . . . ] Read More

Paul Jay and Peter Kuznick challenge the claims that the bombing ended WWII Two weeks before Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day 2023 Paul Jay and Peter Kuznick had a conversation about the just released film Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. They acknowledged the importance of the film at a time when the risk of a nuclear war is the highest since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. But they also raised the question why it is still possible to claim that the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima saved lives by ending WWII. Thanks to Paul Jay, host and co-founder of The Analysis, for inviting Peter Kuznick, professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University and co-author with [ . . . ] Read More

How America hides the human toll of its Military Machine Kirkus Reviews called this book “a powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy” and “a provocative overview of the consequences of the media’s appalling failures in making important truths known.” Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, author and activist. He is the founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy and co-founder and national director of the online organization RootsAction.org, which now has upwards of 1.3 million online supporters. He is the author of 13 books, among them Made Love, Got War; War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death; and Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You. Massachusetts [ . . . ] Read More

Join Dr. Peter Carter, Paul Beckwith and Regina Valdez in a discussion of the recent temperature records set in the first truly global heatwave on land and in the ocean This recording was made on July 12th when the World Meteorological Organization confirmed one record hottest day after another. Dr. Peter Carter, is expert reviewer for the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute. Paul Beckwith is a physicist, engineer, and now a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa. And Regina Valdez is Climate Reality Project Director, NYC. They met by Zoom on July 12th, 2023. And as I am recording this on Tuesday, July 18, AXIOS news reports that again – [ . . . ] Read More

For Brecht’s 100ds birthday in 1998 the Royal National Theatre from London gave a performance in his honor at Theater Artaud in San Francisco Bertolt Brecht and many other artists in post WWI Germany were courageously and proudly democrats, socialists or communists. They had experienced the horror of the first World War and were determined to prevent a second one. So when Hitler and the Nazi party actually assumed state power in 1933 they were all marked and most of them left the country immediately. Their exodus destroyed much of the cultural/political rebellion of the 1920s. Even though Brecht, the playwright, poet, director and theoretician of the stage, was persecuted by the Nazi’s, he was forced to leave his home in [ . . . ] Read More

Neta Crawford, Professor in international relations at the University of Oxford Neta Crawford co-founded the Costs of War Project at Brown University in 2010 and currently serves as a project co-director. She is the author of “The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions” (MIT Press). She spoke at a book release event on September 29, 2022, at Harvard University. The military has for years (unlike many politicians) acknowledged that climate change is real, creating conditions so extreme that some military officials fear future climate wars. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Defense—military forces and DOD agencies—is the largest single energy consumer in the United States and the world’s largest institutional greenhouse gas emitter. [ . . . ] Read More

Redwoods Retirement Center in Mill Valley, CA When I joined Seniors for Peace at their second ever rally for peace in Iraq on February 7, 2003, I did not dream that 20 years later they would still be coming out every Friday from 4 to 5 pm to the busy intersection near their home. Undaunted – even by hostility – they have called for peace in all the subsequent wars since then. Among those who I met in 2003 was a survivor of the firebombing of Dresden and a Red Cross worker in London who saw the young men dead on both sides and still mourned their loss of life. I’m honoring them now – 20 years later – for the [ . . . ] Read More

First the United Kingdom, now the Biden Administration, are planning on sending Depleted Uranium tank shells to Ukraine When the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) made the announcement on March 20, 2023, peace groups and investigative reporters raised the alarm. Toxic and radioactive uranium dust, that appears when these DU shells are detonated, pose a danger to the health of anyone who inhales it. And they contaminate the soil and water. The investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker John Pilger remembers the devastating effects the DU shells had when they were used in Iraq. In conversation with John Pilger is Phil Miller, chief reporter for Declassified UK. Miller was the first to expose Britain’s plan to send Depleted Uranium ammunition to Ukraine. Miller [ . . . ] Read More

The Community Church of Boston celebrated the 60th anniversary of Kennedy’s speech on World Peace on June 10, 2023 They invited Professor Jeffrey Sachs to speak to the congregation. Sachs wrote a book on the American University speech entitled: To Move the World – JFK’s Quest for Peace. Jeffrey Sachs is an economist, academic, and public policy analyst. He is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, and President of the UN Sustainable Solutions Network, and an SDG advocate for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Sachs has credentials for Eastern Europe and Russia as former advisor to the economic team of Presidents Michael Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. He also spent time in Ukraine as advisor to the President of independent [ . . . ] Read More

The Land Back Symposium was a day-long event at Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata, held on March 24, 2023 The event focused on the indigenous peoples of Northern California and how a growing LandBack movement can protect former tribal land from mining, logging and climate change. Corrina Gould is the co-founder and Co-Director of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. She is the Spokeswoman and Tribal Chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, now known as the San Francisco Bay Area. Five of the eight Ohlone Tribes lived on that land and their sacred sites are now buried under cement slabs and their rivers turned into toxic storm drains and their food trees were cut down. Today nobody even wonders why there is [ . . . ] Read More

From Ellsberg’s 2017 book “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” Daniel Ellsberg is best known for having made public the Pentagon Papers in 1971. They showed the world that the U.S. government had lied about planning war on Vietnam and using a lie to start it. At the same time Ellsberg had copied and taken 7,000 pages from the nuclear command and control system in the US – that also contained the targeting for a first strike launch against the Soviet Union and China. Ellsberg always said that this was information even more vital for the world to have than the Pentagon Papers. And in part one of this program he described how these records [ . . . ] Read More

From Ellsberg’s 2017 book “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” In 1971, the young defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg had taken on the Nixon administration, risking his career and freedom to leak the Pentagon Papers. He showed the world that the U.S. government had lied repeatedly about beginning and winning the war on Vietnam. Now, over 40 years later, Ellsberg is sharing the research from his most ambitious project yet, The Doomsday Machine — a stunning insider’s tale of the American nuclear procedures. Ellsberg was a nuclear war planner during the 1950s and ’60s. In The Doomsday Machine Ellsberg offers an expose about “the nuclear war planners, of which I was one, who have written plans to kill billions [ . . . ] Read More

How the Morrill Act of 1862 gave nearly 11 million acres of land, taken from more than 250 tribal nations, to finance 52 land grant colleges Land Grant Universities got their money through land confiscations, often through violence and threats. The Land Back Symposium was a day-long event at Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata, CA, held on March 24 of 2023. A powerful movement of land return is spreading across the world and has even reached some support from state governments. The Land Grab Universities session was led by Dr. Brittani Orona, Hoopa Valley Tribe (Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies, San Diego State University) The panelist were: He-Lo Ramirez, Menchoopda Indian Tribe, (Council Member & Director of Environmental Planning and Protection [ . . . ] Read More

Panels discussed Public & Private Land Return, Land Grant Universities, Indigenous Land Trusts, and Legal Recommendations The Land Back Symposium was a day-long event at Cal Poly Humboldt, Arcata, held on March 24. The meeting broke many taboos and told the story how a powerful movement of land return is spreading across the world and – at least in California – has even reached some support by state government. The opening session began with a welcome from Chairman Ted Hernandez of the Wiyot Tribe, followed by Geneva Thompson, the Assistant Secretary for Tribal Affairs at the California Natural Resources Agency; and ended with a talk by Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy on “Land Histories & Decolonial Land Futures”. She is Cal Poly Humboldt’s [ . . . ] Read More

Told by veteran Utah Phillips, journalists and historians, with a 3 min. update from Democracy Now On Wednesday, April 26, 2023, Joe Biden pledged to deploy nuclear armed submarines to South Korea for the first time in 40 years. The US would involve officials from South Korea in nuclear planning operations targeting North Korea. How has it come to this, what is the experience of people on the ground in North and South Korea. And why do we know so little about the US War on Korea, that began 70 years ago, and never ended in a peace agreement. I had the moving experience to record one of the few living veterans of that war. The great [ . . . ] Read More

Of course Ellsberg is best known for the release of the Pentagon Papers, a top secret study of the decision-making of the U.S. government in relation to the war in Vietnam, how long it had been planned for, and how – like in the bombing of Iraq – lies were used to actually begin the war in Vietnam. Less known is his support of whistle-blowers and his anti-nuclear work. Daniel Ellsberg has used his experience to defend Julian Assange and other whistleblowers – even up to current days – when it has become known that he received a cancer diagnosis that gives him only a few more months to live. Frank Barat spoke with Daniel Ellsberg on Jan 19, 2023. He is [ . . . ] Read More

His encouragement to others to disclose government lies – and his response to the accusation of treason This is the second part of a talk by Daniel Ellsberg that he gave on December 18, 2007 in downtown San Francisco to a small group of members of the Republican Roundtable. Those were the George W Bush years and it was well known that Ellsberg campaigned against the threats war on Iran. I had permission to film the event and was concerned about a possible confrontation. Half-way through this 29 minute segment Ellsberg responds to a statement that he was advocating treason – to which he gives a legally and historically brilliant response that still applies today, to Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning [ . . . ] Read More

And his first hand experience of The Gulf of Tonkin Deception It was the evening of December 18, 2007, and I was setting up my recording equipment in an unfamiliar downtown San Francisco conference room. The events coordinator of the Republican Roundtable had offered me an invitation to record Daniel Ellsberg – and of course I said yes – in spite of the unfamiliar venue. One of the guests walked past me and said matter-of-factly: Ellsberg is a traitor and proceeded to his chair. And by the time that Daniel Ellsberg arrived I was certain that there were only two people in the room who were not Republican. In spite of some skepticism Ellsberg moved the audience with one of the most [ . . . ] Read More

Marc Lamont Hill speaks to Varoufakis on UpFront on Al Jazeera on March 31, 2023 This interview – plus the original article by Varoufakis: “Let the Banks Burn”, published in Project Syndicate on March 24, 2023, generated over a quarter million entries on search engines in only ten days. They may be one of the most unorthodox but also well thought out solutions to the current banking crisis. The interviewer, Marc Lamont Hill, is an American author, activist, and professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is host of UpFront on Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera is the international news conglomerate, based in Doha and financed by the Qatari government. Yanis Varoufakis is [ . . . ] Read More

Annabelle Goldie, the British minister of state for defense, made this announcement last week, on March 20, 2023 Britain already has sent the first Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine and the Depleted Uranium munitions are designed to be fired from these tanks. This announcement came just two days after the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war, where DU ammunitions were used on a large scale. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has attacked the UK’s decision. Kate Hudson, its General Secretary, said: “CND has repeatedly called for the UK government to place an immediate moratorium on the use of Depleted Uranium…” DU munitions were used by the US and Britain in the Gulf war in 1991 and in Iraq in [ . . . ] Read More

Jordan Chariton asks Prof. Wolff – Is this crisis contained – or will it spread? They spoke on March 15 – when the news broke that the Silicon Valley Bank was to receive a bailout. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update. Jordan Chariton is an investigative reporting news producer with Status Coup News. They feature in-field and investigative reporting, and aim to cover what corporate media covers up. Find the interview from March 15, 2023 on YouTube under the title: Professor Richard Wolff: Silicon Valley Bank Bailout Crisis. Credit: Jordan Chariton, Status Coup News Date: 2023/03/15

Special for International Women’s Month
This is the conclusion of Dr. Riffat Hassan’s extraordinary feminist lecture on the story of Adam and Eve, a story that forms the basis for the oppression of women in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Plus my interview with her about her radical re-interpretation of the significance of Eve’s acceptance of the apple. 
Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and critique the source. In the original text, says Hassan, women are neither inferior nor sinful. Adam is not a man’s name – it [ . . . ] Read More

Special for International Women’s Month 2023
 Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and investigate the source. This required courage since challenging traditional interpretation of the Koran can be a capital offense. On the other hand we are all familiar with the claim that Islam has given women more rights than any other religious tradition. And Riffat Hassan decided to deal with that contradiction. Riffat Hassan began her quest in 1984 when her feminist friends in Pakistan asked her to help define the theological [ . . . ] Read More

A speech on the one year anniversary of the climate destroying war in Ukraine Peter Carter from British Columbia, Canada, is a retired medically trained doctor with a background in environmental health protection.  In 2009, moved by James Hansen’s public statement that the world was in a state of planetary emergency due to climate change, he founded the Climate Emergency Institute and remains it’s director. He published on global climate change science and impacts, Arctic climate change, risk assessment and biodiversity. He has presented at many leading science and climate change conferences including the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU). And he is an IPCC expert reviewer. The IPCC and other United Nations organizations have warned us that [ . . . ] Read More

An interview by Steve Taylor for the Global Justice Ecology Project This thought provoking conversation took place on January 25, 2023, one day after the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds before midnight—in large part due to war in Ukraine. Dr. Helen Caldicott is an Australian peace activist and environmentalist. She discusses the extreme and imminent threat of a nuclear holocaust due to a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia in Ukraine. She also addresses nuclear fusion and the relationship between the nuclear power industry and nuclear weapons. Helen Caldicott is the author of many books and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was named by the Smithsonian as one [ . . . ] Read More

Hamilton 68 was a Twitter based dashboard designed to be used by reporters and academics to “measure Russian disinformation” Chris Hedges wrote: The panic over Russian disinformation that followed the election of Donald Trump often relied on a source now known to have been fraudulent, Hamilton 68. Matt Taibbi wrote: Virtually every major news organization in America has used material from the Hamilton 68 dashboard, including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post. Mother Jones alone did at least 14 stories pegged to the group’s “research.” Even fact-checking sites like Politifact and Snopes cited Hamilton 68 as a source. This is a February 10, 2023, interview by Chris Hedges of Matt Taibbi on The Real [ . . . ] Read More

Credit to Ben Norton, founder and editor of Geopolitical Economy Report In his speech to the U.S. National Association of State Chambers on Jan. 23rd, 2023, Zelensky credited asset managers and corporations that are already active in Ukraine – among them BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan Chase, Elon Musk’s Starlink and Westinghouse. But that is just the beginning. Rebuilding Ukraine, Zelensky said, “will be the largest economic project of our time in Europe.” The areas of investment listed by Zelensky range from weapons and defense to construction, from communications to agriculture, from transport to IT, from banks to medicine. “And, I invite you to work with us right now”. Ben Norton, investigative journalist and the founder and editor of the Geopolitical Economy [ . . . ] Read More

With Prof. Yogi Hendlin & Ari Whitten When this conversation took place in April 2022 Ari Whitten and Prof. Yogi Hendlin had just met in Costa Rica and were inspired by their common interests. Here are excerpts from their 90 minute conversation on environmental toxins and how they affect our health. They discuss in detail how industries, that produce these toxins, manipulate research and evade responsibility. Ari Whitten is the founder of The Energy Blueprint, and a best-selling author. Prof. Yogi Hendlin is an environmental philosopher and public health scientist. He has a PhD in Environmental Philosophy from the University of Kiel, Germany, and holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and UCLA and bachelor’s degrees from UC Berkeley. He’s currently [ . . . ] Read More

Killing people, or preparing to kill them, is considered very valuable in the international economic system Marilyn Waring was only 22 when she was first elected to the New Zealand Parliament. She was shocked and dismayed when she learned that all countries that are members of the UN are forced to keep their books and design their budgets under the system of National Income Accounting. The international trade in arms is the biggest growth industry of all. Killing people, or preparing to kill them, is considered very valuable in the international economic system. The death, homelessness, injury, poverty and starvation caused by the use of these weapons is not even registered as a deficit. This segment opens with war. Under the GDP [ . . . ] Read More

Under the GDP accounting system war is the biggest growth industry of all 
Marilyn Waring’s work and inspiring life are described in a documentary film by Terre Nash. I’m bringing back the soundtrack of this film to support a debate on the unquestioned need for economic growth at all cost and on what course to take to end the war on Ukraine. At age 22 (in 1974) Marilyn Waring became the youngest member of the New Zealand Parliament. She chaired the prestigious Public Expenditures Committee and became familiar with the Gross Domestic Product system and decided to disclose its pathologies in a film, her teachings at AUT University in Auckland and really her life as a feminist economist. The [ . . . ] Read More