Syria: The Turkish Ceasefire That Wasn’t

Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Massoud Shadjareh, the founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission.
Clashes continued on the border between Turkey and Syria, despite the fact that the two sides were supposed to have come to a five-day ceasefire agreement yesterday. Kurdish officials said that the Turkish military continues to shell civilian targets along the border, and that the Turkish army bombed a hospital in Ras al-Ain.
A strike by Chicao teachers entered its second day today, and there are no prospects for a quick resolution. Teachers aren’t looking just for a pay raise. They’re looking for bold, transformative changes, including more affordable housing in the city for students and teachers. The city, however, says that the teachers’ demands are too much, and that it prefers to address some issues outside the bargaining process. Chicago Teachers Union member and activist Nick Stender joins the show.
The British Parliament will be in session tomorrow, its first Saturday session in 37 years, to debate and vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and selected amendments. If the plan passes with no amendments, the UK will leave the EU. If it passes with amendments, Johnson will have to ask for an extension to negotiate a new deal. If the plan fails, Johnson will have to ask for an extension to head off a no-deal Brexit. Brian and John speak with Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star.
A general strike in the semi-autonomous Spanish region of Catalonia has brought Barcelona and its environs to a complete stop. Tens of thousands of protestors are marching in opposition to a Spanish Supreme Court decision to incarcerate the leaders of Catalonia’s independence movement. Are Catalonians headed for another standoff with the Madrid government? Dick Nichols, the correspondent for Spain and Catalonia for Green Left Weekly, joins the show.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on the Turkish invasion of Syria, the impeachment probe, and the possible breakthrough in UK-EU negotiations over Brexit. Brian and John speak with Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net whose most recent article is “The Empire Steps Back: Trump Withdraws From Syria – Impeachment Now Possible,” and Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.