Between The Lines – Aug. 12, 2026 – Full Show


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iran war

Trump Flounders as Iran Takes Initiative in His Reckless and Destabilizing War

Interview with Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted by Scott Harris

progressive streak, DSA

Progressive Democrats’ Primary Election Wins Stoke Corporate Democrat Backlash

Interview with Branko Marcetic, staff writer with Jacobin magazine, conducted by Scott Harris

juvenile sentencing

Opposition to U.S. Youth Life Without Parole Sentences Drives Campaign for Reform

Interview with Joshua Rovner, director of Youth Justice with The Sentencing Project, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

This Week’s Under-reported News Summary – Aug. 12, 2026

Compiled by Bob Nixon

  • After US attack on Iran, did China's sudden reduced oil purchases prop up global markets?
  • Climate change bringing water to drought-stricken Sahel area in Sahara Desert
  • Democrat wins could break GOP veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures

Recently on Between the Lines

Cuba crisis

Cuba’s Economy Grinds to a Halt Amid Trump’s Economic Blockade, Triggering Humanitarian Crisis

Through 14 presidential Republican and Democratic administrations, starting with Eisenhower, the U.S. has had a belligerent relationship with Cuba since Fidel Castro took power...
trump midterm election

Local Nonviolent Organizing is Most Effective Defense Against Trump’s Midterm Election Subversion

Since Donald Trump took office for a second term in January 2025, his administration has been relentlessly focused on interfering in this November’s midterm...
yale-trump surrender

Yale University President Surrenders to Trump Regime’s Demands for Political and Ideological Alignment

In a months-long campaign, the Trump administration is seeking to control university and college admissions policies, curricula and hiring guidelines, as it attempts to...

This Week’s Under-reported News Summary – Aug. 5, 2026

In response to the Trump administration’s imposition of costly tariffs on China, Beijing is expanding its export controls against the United States and American...

Special Feature

Amazon labor union

The Amazon Labor Union Fights For A Contract

The Monthly Labor Report talks with Sultana Hossain, recording secretary with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which continues to fight for its first contract with the company two years after the union's certification by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Sultana Hussain describes the history of the movement that led to the formation of the ALU, the egregious working conditions that fueled the movement, and the ongoing battle for recognition by Amazon.
Hosted by Michael Zweig and Richard Hill.

What is The Monthly Labor Report?

Economist Michael Zweig and Richard Hill discuss recent developments on the labor front and delves into the history of the struggles of working people for union representation and economic justice.

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In Depth

iran war

Counterpoint August 10, 2026

The Forest and the Trees

SPECIAL REPORTS

Resistance Roundtable: AI —The Good, Bad, and Ugly; and A New Immigrant Support Initiative

Professor Richard Wolff, economist and author, discusses the current state of the U.S. economy in the face of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and...
warsships

Iran’s Asymmetric Warfare

The Roundtable speaks with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.) about Iran's asymmetric military assets, which he says are giving it the ability to stalemate the...
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Women’s History Month Special: Kathy Black, Life-long Union Activist, Talks About the On-going Struggle

The Monthly Labor Report welcomes Kathy Black, who served as the president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)...

Trump’s Dementia + Megalomania = Violent Police State 

Mel Goodman, a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University and a former CIA analyst, assesses Donald Trump’s irrational and authoritarian second term foreign and domestic...

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Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine

Timely, in-depth progressive news and views underreported in mainstream, corporate media BTLonline.org, distributed by 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization Squeaky Wheel Productions at http://SqueakyWheel.net.
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine1 week ago
Connecticut's Democratic Primary is Tomorrow. Tues, 8-11-26.

Tune into WPKN 89.5 FM, WPKN.org - tonight at 8:00 pm EDT when the Counterpoint program will present the two gubernatorial candidates: Governor Ned Lamont and State Rep. Josh Elliott discussing the issues.

Counterpoint host Scott Harris conducts back-to-back interviews where the two candidates discuss their positions on voter's top issues including: skyrocketing health care costs, taxing the rich, the high cost of electricity and the urgent need to build affordable housing.
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine1 week ago
COUNTERPOINT RADIO, hosted by Scott Harris, is heard every Monday night on WPKN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport, CT between 8:00 – 9:30 pm ET. Webstreaming and audio archive at http://wpkn.org

1) Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses her views on the current status of Trump's war on Iran, how the conflict has spread dangerously throughout the region, and the future of the Strait of Hormuz where Iran and Oman are engaged in talks to manage the disputed waterway.

2) Branko Marcetic, a Jacobin staff writer and the author of "Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden," assesses recent Democratic Party primary victories by progressive candidates and members of the Democratic Socialists of America, the millions of dollars spent by AIPAC and centrist Democrats to defeat them, and efforts to unify the party before the November Midterm election.

3) Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and State Rep. Josh Elliott are interviewed about their candidacies on the eve of the Tuesday, August 11 Democratic Party Primary election for Governor. They discuss their positions on voter's top issues including, skyrocketing health care costs, taxing the rich, the high cost of electricity and the urgent need to build affordable housing.

4) Autumn Waddell an activist with the Elbit Out of South Carolina coalition, discusses the recent arrests of three protesters picketing outside the Elbit Systems of America factory in Ladson, South Carolina -- and issues related to Israel's genocide in Gaza, violations of free speech surrounding dissenting views on the U.S. relationship with Israel, and the international campaign against Elbit Systems, which in Britain, under the name Palestine Action, has been banned under the Terrorism Act, designating it as a proscribed "terrorist" organization.

Some segments featured on Counterpoint are edited for re-broadcast on the syndicated Between The Lines radio news magazine. Visit their web site at http://www.btlonline.org for free subscriptions to mp3 - podcast audio files, program summaries and interview transcripts. An archive of current and past Counterpoint interviews are accessible for free at our Counterpoint Radio web site: http://counterpointradio.org The full 1.5 hour unedited program can be accessed for a 2 week period after the show, at the WPKN Radio archives: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/search/counterpoint
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine2 weeks ago
Yale University President Surrenders to Trump Regime’s Demands for Political and Ideological Alignment: Interview with Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, conducted by Scott Harris
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine2 weeks ago
COUNTERPOINT RADIO, hosted by Scott Harris, is heard every Monday night on WPKN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport, CT between 8:00 – 9:30 pm ET. Webstreaming and audio archive at http://wpkn.org

1) Jason Stanley professor of philosophy and chairman of American studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and author "How Fascism Works," and "Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future." Professor Stanley discusses Trump's very open escalation of threats against the November midterm election, rising violence from masked ICE agents, the building of concentration camps nationwide -- as the regime criminalizes and targets voting rights groups, journalists, progressive dissidents, universities and perceived enemies.

2) Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a New York Times foreign correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East and the Balkans for fifteen years, and author. His book, "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," was a National Book Critics Circle finalist. His recent titles include, "A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine." Chris will discuss his recent commentary titled, "Trump’s Phantom Enemies," that asserts the Trump regime in linking Cuba with domestic, communist subversion is laying the groundwork for McCarthyite blacklisting and criminalizing of all left-wing, progressive, anti-war and anti-imperialist dissent.

3) J. Patrick Coolican, Editor-in-Chief of Minnesota Reformer, discusses his recent article, "The Blueprint for fighting Trump's attempt to sabotage the election, drawn up in Minnesota," about Doran Schrantz 's 14-page internal memo titled, “Act Free to Be Free." Addressing both the worry and complacency among many Democrats re: what Trump is clearly planning to intervene and attempt to manipulate thre outcome of the November midterm election.

4) Stanley Heller, administrator of the New Haven CT based group Promoting Enduring Peace and host of the TV newsmagazine “The Struggle," talks about the global campaign to release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the prominent Palestinian pediatrician and director of North Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial since December 27, 2024. Reports indicate Dr Safiya is suffering deteriorating health without adequate medical attention, where eyewitnesses say his condition is life threatening, unless freed very soon.

Some segments featured on Counterpoint are edited for re-broadcast on the syndicated Between The Lines radio news magazine. Visit their web site at http://www.btlonline.org for free subscriptions to mp3 - podcast audio files, program summaries and interview transcripts. An archive of current and past Counterpoint interviews are accessible for free at our Counterpoint Radio web site: http://counterpointradio.org The full 1.5 hour unedited program can be accessed for a 2 week period after the show, at the WPKN Radio archives: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/search/counterpoint
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine
Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine3 weeks ago
Anthony Fauci’s high-profile Senate hearing: what we learned
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/29/anthony-fauci-senate-covid-hearing-takeaways

The REAL uninvestigated crime is Donald Trump's responsibility for hundreds of thousands of needless American COVID deaths due to his anti-science, politically self-serving disastrous public health policies. (Remember Trump kept some of the first COVID patients on a ship offshore so they woudn't add to the # of Americans who had contracted COVID, as he said at the time it would hurt his chances of re-election...)

The sickening reality is that Democrats in Congress under Biden didn't investigate Trump's actions that led to this mass murder and crime against humanity -- leaving the door wide open to amoral sycophant Republicans to blame Dr. Fauci.

Until the Democratic Party understands that the nation is in a life and death struggle with the fascist Trump GOP death cult, our democracy has no chance of survival. This is a pattern we've seen over and over again with Democrats bringing pillows (or nothing at all) to a knife fight.

References...
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/.../covid-19-response.../
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-policy-failures-have-exacted-a-heavy-toll-on-public-health1/
https://www.reuters.com/.../us-covid-response-could-have.../

Multiple university and medical peer-reviewed studies have concluded that the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic resulted in 130,000 to 400,000 avoidable American COVID-19 deaths. A report by Columbia University Earth Institute's National Center for Disaster Preparedness concluded that “the Trump administration's slow and disorganized response to the pandemic could have resulted in 130,000–210,000 avoidable deaths in the United States.” These findings attribute the excess mortality to delayed federal interventions, the politicization of public health guidance, and a fragmented national response compared to other wealthy nations.