While Homeless Freeze in US, Senate Focuses on Keeping Troops Abroad

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which livestreams every Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. on Facebook, and Sputnik News analyst and producer Walter Smolarek.

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 polar vortex's effect on the homeless and all people (while some fearmonger about Russia instead); the candidates for the 2020 presidential race including recently declared Cory Booker and Tulsi Gabbard, who will declare tomorrow; and a new court decision about Julian Assange.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this morning that the United States would withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a major arms control treaty with Russia, ending a cornerstone Cold War agreement by claiming that Russia has already violated it. The withdrawal takes effect in six months, and threatens to set off a global arms race. Greg Mello, the Executive Director of the Los Alamos Study Group, joins the show.

The Senate voted 68-23 yesterday to approve an amendment expressing strong opposition to President Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria and to draw down the American presence in Afghanistan. The vote is veto-proof and is a direct challenge to the president's decision to bring the troops home. Brian and John speak with Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war activist and journalist whose son Casey was killed during the Iraq War.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials admitted yesterday that they have been force-feeding six detained immigrants who went on a hunger strike to protest conditions at the Texas detention center where they are being held. A total of 15 immigrants are on hunger strikes, and most complain that they are being brutalized by ICE officers. Juan Carlos Ruiz, cofounder of the New Sanctuary Movement, joins the show.

As preparations are underway for a historic second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un later this month, the United States may be softening its negotiating position in the hopes of reaching a deal. Meanwhile, the country's top intelligence officials told Congress earlier this week that North Korea likely will not give up its nuclear capabilities in an attempt to undermine these crucial upcoming talks. Tim Shorrock, a Washington-based investigative journalist who grew up in Japan and South Korea and who is the author of "SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Outsourced Intelligence," joins Brian and John.

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.

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