Scott talks to Nasser Arrabyee about Yemen, where despite the Biden administration's assurances almost six months ago that the U.S. would be ending its support for "offensive operations," the Saudi coalition continues to terrorize the Yemeni civilian population, with crucial American support. The biggest problem facing Yemenis right now, of course, is the Saudi blockade on the Hodedah port, which prevents food and other basic supplies from making it into the country. Until the blockade is...

Scott and Patrick Cockburn speculate about the future of Afghanistan as the United States ends its military involvement there. Cockburn reminds us that although the Taliban are making gains in parts of the country, they are far from universally popular, and the likelihood of an entirely Taliban-controlled Afghanistan seems somewhat low. This, he stresses, means that "the war in Afghanistan" is not going to be over anytime soon, just because the U.S. is leaving—and fighting between the various...

Scott interviews Justin Cornett and Josh Eakle about their organization, For All Tennessee, which they describe as a lobbying group for the people. Cornett and Eakle target specific reforms that just about everyone in their state can agree on, bringing together moderate liberals, Trump supporters and democratic socialists on issues like ballot access, civil asset forfeiture, police chokeholds, no-knock SWAT raids and excessive emergency gubernatorial powers. For All Tennessee met with great...

Scott talks to Kevin Gosztola and John Kiriakou about the trial of drone whistleblower Daniel Hale, who was just sentenced to 45 months in prison for crimes under the espionage act. Hale's case is unlike some other recent whistleblowers, in that he freely pled guilty to an espionage charge but maintained that his actions were morally justified. Kiriakou stresses that with good behavior, time served and substance abuse recovery programs, 45 months really means more like a year and a half. And...

Scott interviews Gareth Porter about the tenuous and secretive relationship between the U.S., China and Taiwan. Since the Nixon administration, Porter explains, America has had an official, but mostly tacit, policy of supporting the "one China" principle—but U.S. officials rarely say so publicly. This has left an ambiguity surrounding Taiwan's status, and during the Obama administration one top Taiwan official in particular suddenly broke with America's longstanding policy of urging the...

David Swanson discusses the new congressional and presidential war powers legislation that's been proposed by Senators Murphy, Lee and Sanders. Swanson describes his initial fears about the bill, given how bad previous attempts to modify congressional war powers and AUMFs have been in recent years. And yet this bill is surprisingly good: it addresses issues like cutting off funding for unauthorized wars, shortening the time that a president can wage such a war before seeking congressional...

Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about what's going on in the various corners of America's would-be empire. In Afghanistan, as predicted, the Taliban have been making gains against the Afghan government as the U.S. military withdraws—but the Biden administration's withdrawal is still tepid, as they plan to keep a small number of troops to protect the embassy and to keep funding the Afghan military until at least 2022. In Iraq, things might be even worse, since DeCamp thinks the recent announcement...

Scott interviews journalist Mark Curtis about his investigations into the UK role in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Regarding Yemen, Britain has long denied any involvement in that war, says Curtis, but it's now been revealed that they, like the U.S., have been helping the Saudi coalition for years. The precise nature of the help the British government is giving isn't exactly clear, but it likely involves the same things the Americans have been doing all along: training Saudi troops, assisting...

Peter McCormack discusses the latest developments in the world of Bitcoin. The most important news is that El Salvador moved to make Bitcoin legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar, which McCormack says is huge for its viability as a mainstream currency. Bitcoin should help to solve several problems that have long plagued El Salvador's economy, and other Latin American countries may well follow suit. More and more people are also spending and accepting Bitcoin around the world, rather than...

Ron Enzweiler discusses the unlearned lessons of America's wasteful and doomed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. First of all, he says, we should have known that the only thing keeping Iraq together was Saddam Hussein's stranglehold on power, which prevented a civil war from breaking out. After the United States deposed him, explains Enzweiler, those tensions were going to bubble over no matter what. The best thing to do now would be to leave Iraq as soon as possible, but stubborn superstitions...

Scott talks to Doug Bandow about the recent assassination of Haiti's president and the ensuing calls for U.S. intervention. Bandow warns about the perils of interventions like this, even when they are seemingly justified by the noble cause of humanitarianism. In Haiti in particular, he says, a history of disastrous foreign intervention is fresh in people's minds, and any military response is likely to backfire. Luckily, Bandow doesn't think Biden is especially keen on responding to the calls...

Scott talks to Dave DeCamp about some of the latest stories at antiwar.com. Recently, says DeCamp, it's been reported that Iran was urging Iraqi militias not to retaliate against the U.S., after they'd been the target of airstrikes by the Biden administration. Needless to say, this doesn't exactly comport with the mainstream narrative about Iran, and you won't see stories like this widely covered. Dave and Scott go on to discuss a rumored American withdrawal from Iraq and wrap up with an...

Branko Marcetic discusses the stunning lack of mainstream media coverage of Julian Assange's case. Besides being the right thing to do, since Assange has heroically helped expose heinous crimes by many of the world's governments, journalists also have a selfish reason to care about Assange's plight: what he does at WikiLeaks is not categorically different from what any of them does when covering stories that originated from leaked documents. And yet nearly everyone in the press seems content...

Scott talks to Ted Snider about America's relationship with Iran and Syria. Iran has just elected a new president, Ibrahim Raisi, who Snider says is much more of a hardliner than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani was the one who worked with the Obama administration on the JCPOA, so on the surface it seems that Raisi's more obstinate stance toward the U.S. will be to America's disadvantage. But Snider goes on to explain a bizarre dynamic that pervades American—and especially...

Jim Bovard discusses the recent rumblings about "domestic extremism," which the Biden administration and many Democrats have been warning is a rising problem in America. So far, Biden has only issued executive orders about so-called extremism, but some politicians are pushing for new laws that would give expanded powers to U.S. law enforcement to crack down on this alleged problem. In reality, of course, "domestic terrorism" is not a significant problem compared to the many other ills facing...