WZBC 90.3 FM Newton

The New York Times didn’t even address the brutal hate-based 1982 murder of Chinese-American Vincent Chin until 1983. NYT's insulting miscoverage? “Two men were quickly charged and prosecuted…the incident faded from many memories.” Also: We talk about New York Times' horrible miscoverage of the Chesa Boudin recall, of which elite media are making much conventional wisdom hay, with Alec Karakatsanis, founder and executive director of Civil Rights Corps, and author of the book Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System.

An Urgent Appeal for Peace in Ukraine Rob Johnson is President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, iNEP. They publish interviews on line and on June 6, 2022, Johnson spoke with Professor of Economics, Jeffrey Sachs, about Ukraine; the danger of nuclear war inherent in the current US/Russian confrontation (with reference to the 60th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis); and on US Exceptionalism. Jeffrey Sachs is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. ...

Almost all of the policy crises we face today — abortion, guns, climate change, the integrity of our elections — have been blocked from consideration by the US Senate. How did that happen? How did what some have called the “world’s greatest deliberative body” come to a standstill? The answer, according to Ira Shapiro, our guest on this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast – is Mitch McConnell. Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has put these highly critical issues on ice. Shapiro is a 45-year veteran of Washington, a former Senate staffer, a former official in the Clinton administration, and the author of three books about the US Senate, including his latest, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America. Shapiro details what happened after McConnell became minority leader, and how it led, in his view, to a “dark place in history.” ...

Today we explore the crisis of Palestinian Leadership and the role that civil society plays in the resistance to the Israeli occupation, Featuring Ahmed Abu Artema (Palestinian writer and activist and the key architect of the March of Return in Gaza) and Marwa Fatafta (Policy Manager at Access Now). In this session we explored issues surrounding Palestinian civil society, and in particular human rights defenders and democracy activists, and the challenges and threats they face — including direct attacks by Israel, targeting by Palestinian authorities, and apathy/indifference from the international community in the face of these attacks.

…Now we get a new report saying: “China’s New Coal Mines Could Raise Global Methane Emissions by 10%”. There is a lot of shocking new information in Tate’s latest report on coal mining in China: 1. The story-line reaching the West was that China was cutting back on coal. They needed to control deadly smog infesting cities and whole regions of the country. What happened to that? 2, There is a climate-significant amount of methane coming from coal mining operations around the world. We expect methane from fracking and leaky natural gas systems, but coal mining is a significant source not talked about. 3. Coal mines never stop emitting methane, even when they are closed or abandoned. A 2019 study by Carbon Brief found coal mines emit more methane that the oil and gas sector, and comparable to the CO2 emissions from international aviation and shipping. Why isn’t this a subject of environmental campaigns, and why is it so little known by the public?

Jumaan gives a jarring summary of the mass starvation and deaths in Yemen, shamefully caused by our own government in collaboration with that of Saudi Arabia. arrogantly, shamelessly. She is the Founder and President of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. Jumaan has over 30 years of experience in public health, including in viral vaccine preventable diseases, cancer research, maternal & child health and nutrition, and women in development. She worked with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for over a decade. Jumaan also worked in her native home, Yemen, with the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Development Program. ...