This week's show features stories from NHK Japan, Sputnik Radio, Radio Havana Cuba, and Radio Deutsche-Welle.

http://www.outfarpress.com/swr201023.mp3

From JAPAN- First an update on the anti-government protest in Thailand, which has continued despite an emergency ban. Security forces in Nigeria shot dead at least 12 citizens protesting police brutality and corruption. The US and Russia announced they will begin talks on extending the last remaining nuclear weapons control pact- a US peace activist has been trying to bring the question of a nuclear weapons ban into the US presidential debate. ICAN, or the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons, says that the number of signatories ratifying a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons may reach the required number this week.

From RUSSIA- George Galloway spoke with Prof Justin Podur of York University in Toronto about his new book "Extraordinary Threat." They discuss how Venezuela became called a threat to the US so that sanctions could be imposed, and why Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro are censured by Western media while being esteemed by the majority of their population.

From CUBA- In Bolivia the new president is Luis Arce of the leftwing MAS party formerly led by exiled president Evo Morales. In Santiago Chile tens of thousands gathered to demand greater social equality. In Bogota Colombia thousands of indigenous leader and activists met to join a national strike against the government social and economic policies, and demand an end to the murder of social leaders in the country. Israeli forces attacked Palestinians taking part in protests against settlements in the occupied West Bank.

From GERMANY- Edward Snowden has been granted permanent residency in Russia. Then a series of brief reports on the Covid crisis, which is spreading at alarming rates across Europe, leading to the reinstitution of strict lockdown measures in several countries. Around the worlds journalists have been harassed and arrested for reporting on the pandemic. In France a middle school teacher was decapitated for showing students the Charlie Hebdo cartoons as examples of free press- huge protests and crackdowns have followed.