Pharma company Biogen is on the hook for 900 millions dollars due to allegations of an unethical kickback scheme. Brett Favre is under suspicion of financial corruption in Mississippi. An American Airlines flight was, apparently, haunted by the sounds of a man groaning over the intercom for the duration of the trip -- and no one's sure what happened. All this and more in this week's Strange News. They don’t want you to read our book. They don’t want you to see us on tour.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the key railway hub is under his country's control. Russian forces had been using the rail lines to resupply their troops farther south in Ukraine.
On this episode, John O'Neill joins Mark Bauerlein to discuss his new book, "The Dancer and the Devil: Stalin, Pavlova, and the Road to the Great Pandemic."
There’s a test used across Latin America to determine whether a baby was born dead or alive. And depending on the result, it could allow prosecutors to bring murder charges against mothers who might have had a still-born birth. And there’s an even bigger problem. This test is 400 years old and very unreliable.
Today, how the so-called flotation test is sending women to prison for killing their newborns, when they say that they’re innocent. Read the full transcript here.
Host: Gustavo Arellano
Guests: L.A. Times foreign correspondent Leila Miller
The U.S. death toll from Hurricane Ian grows to 86 as cleanup struggles mount. A key victory for Ukraine. Possible California serial killer. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
Today's podcast begins calmly with a conversation about whether people and voters take issues seriously or are now primarily motivated by negativity toward the other side. Then we start talking about Ukraine and Russia—and all hell breaks loose. If you dare, give a listen.
Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent president, did unexpectedly well—giving his campaign a boost and foreshadowing a tough run-up to the second round. Malawi’s incipient democracy stands as a shining regional example, but remaking its economy has proved even harder than ousting its undemocratic leader. And why one tank is a particularly handsome prize amid Ukraine’s growing pile of captured Russian kit.
Prop Fest 2022 breaks down all the statewide propositions on your ballot. Proposition 28 would guarantee a set amount of funding from the general fund goes to arts education.
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This story was reported by Julia McEvoy. Prop Fest is made by the Bay Curious team, Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font and Brendan Willard, in collaboration with The Bay team, Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Alan Montecillo, and Maria Esquinca. Our Social Video Intern is Darren Tu. Additional support from Kyana Moghadam, Christiopher Beale, Jen Chien, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.
During the pandemic our laws were radically remade by a government which exercised almost unlimited power, according to the human rights barrister, Adam Wagner. In Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters he decries the lack of parliamentary debate and oversight as restrictions became tighter, and warns against the possiblity of future emergencies following the same political path.
But how effective is our parliamentary democracy in scrutinising the government? The Assistant Editor of the Spectator, Isabel Hardman is a seasoned politician-watcher and joins the programme from the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. She fears MPs are failing in their role as effective legislators both because of demands on their time from their constituencies, and because of concern about ruining their chances of joining the executive.
The historian Tim Bale studies the fortunes of the Conservative Party, and is looking with interest at the direction the new government is heading. Not since 1979 has the country faced such challenging economic circumstances. But Bale asks how far the new Prime Minister Liz Truss is reaching back in history for answers to today’s problems.
The Italian film director and journalist, Annalisa Piras is also following Italy’s new government with interest, following the snap election last week. As the far-right leader Giorgia Meloni is set to become the country’s first female prime minister, Piras looks at her policies for dealing with the cost of living crisis, and how Italy’s politicians are placed to oversee government decisions.
