Ready to Make History: North and South Korea Put Summit Back on Track

Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Christine Ahn, International Coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, and author and professor Tim Beal.
One of North Korea’s top leaders is arriving in the United States today for talks with Trump Administration officials, and possibly with the President himself, on kickstarting the US-DPRK summit originally planned for June 12 in Singapore. General Kim Yong Chol is one of Kim Jong Un’s closest advisors and is a former chief of the North Korean Intelligence Service.
The hosts continue the weekly series “False Profits -- A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey”.
The Trump Administration over the past several days has tried to defend itself against allegations that it has lost track of 1,500 undocumented children placed in temporary care. The accusations come on the heels of news reports that the Department of Homeland Security has implemented a policy of separating undocumented parents from their children. But the truth is that the policy dates from the Obama Administration, and at this point in his presidency, Obama deported far more people than Trump has. Brian and John speak with Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer of Black Alliance for Peace.
Italy’s current political situation is in a state of chaos. Just days after two populist parties--the Five Star Movement and the far-right League party--agreed to form a new government, the deal fell apart and President Sergio Matterella has called new elections. The two parties are expected to win even more seats in the next parliament. John Wight, host of the weekly Sputnik Radio show Hard Facts, and Sputnik News analyst Walter Smolarek join the show.
Colombians have failed to elect a president outright, setting the stage for a bitter runoff between two frontrunners from opposite ends of the political spectrum, while a fragile peace process with leftist former rebels hangs in the balance. Mario Murillo, author and professor of Communications and Latin American studies, joins Brian and John.
Electronic incarceration--the use of ankle bracelets and other monitoring devices on released prisoners are popular government alternatives to prison. But are they really that different? The devices have turned prisoners’ homes into prisons. In addition, prisoners are charged a daily fee for electronic incarceration. And if they can’t pay for it, they go right back to prison. James Kilgore, research scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) who writes at ChallengingECarceration.org, joins the show.
Harvard University’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health released a study this morning saying that the government’s estimate of 64 deaths in Puerto Rico from last year’s Hurricane Maria grossly underestimated the true number. The report puts the number of deaths at 4,600. Many of them because of delayed medical care. Brian and John speak with Camilo Matos, a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.