FF 12: May 16th, 2017 News and Chat About Afghanistan With Matt Archibald (Part II)

Matthew Archibald, Phd in International Relations and scholar on Afghanistan, is today’s guest.  He will help us learn about the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and some of the current challenges facing that nation.

In the News

After losing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Hillary Clinton announced on Monday that she is launching an organization called Onward Together which seeks to fund resistance groups that are opposed to President Trump.  The website for the organization has the quote, “Resist, insist, persist, enlist.” on its homepage.

The website: https://www.onwardtogether.org/

The Pew Research Center reports that 44% of adults think that the protests, marches, and demonstrations for science and climate in recent months will boost public support for science and an equal number (44%) believe that the protests will make no difference.  Results were divided among political and generational lines.  61% of Democrats believe that the marches will increase public support and 22% of Republicans believe the marches will help.  60% of Republicans think the marches will make no difference.   

A new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll widely reported in the media reveals that 59% of adults agree that Congress should launch an independent investigation into communications between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.  Broken down further, 41% of Republicans and 79% of Democrats want the independent investigation.    

Interestingly, the poll includes respondents that are 45% Democrat versus only 33% Republican.       

In Business News

The Standard and Poor’s 500 reached a record high on Monday while rising half a percent closing at 2402.  The Nasdaq also hit a new high while gaining 28 points to close at 6150.  

In Tech News

It is being reported that Netflix may become unavailable on Android devices that have been rooted or unlocked.  Since its last update, the Netflix app now relies on the Widevine digital rights management provided by Google and may stop working on devices that are not Google certified.

In International News

On Monday, the U.S. State Department stated that the Syrian government committed atrocities at a military prison outside of Damascus.  The acting assistant secretary for Near East Affairs for the State Department stated, “Beginning in 2013, the Syrian regime modified a building within the Saydnaya complex to support what we believe is a crematorium...we believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place in Saydnaya prison."

For detailed information regarding Syria and the events that led up to the current crisis, be sure to check out episodes from May 8th and 9th with Professor Brian Glyn Williams, former CIA Officer.

Meanwhile in France, Emmanuel Macron officially took office as President which makes him the youngest, at age 39, since Napoleon.