Front Burner

In a major escalation of its months long “maximum pressure” campaign, the United States announced it has indicted Raúl Castro, former president of Cuba, over the downing of two planes flown by a group of Cuban exiles targeting the regime in 1996.

It was a move officials within the Trump administration had been signalling would happen after the director of the CIA met with Cuban officials in Havana.

We speak to Peter Kornbluh, an author and senior analyst at the National Security Archive specializing in Cuba, about whether this signals a Venezuela-style strike on the country.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Mark Carney has condemned what he described as the “abominable treatment” of flotilla activists detained by Israeli authorities.

His statement came after the release of a video showing activists from around the world blindfolded, restrained, and forced face-down on the ground as Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the detention site.

Up to a dozen Canadians were among those detained, according to the group who organized the flotilla. All have since been deported.

Today we’re joined by Heidi Matthews, legal scholar and assistant professor at York University’s Osgoode Law School, who traveled alongside an earlier flotilla as a part of a legal support vessel. She joins to discuss the politics and history of the Gaza flotillas, and the tradition of nonviolent direct action.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Earlier this month, 30 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Trump administration with a remarkable request: to publicly acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East. But unlike other nuclear powers, Israel has never officially acknowledged its arsenal.

That nuclear policy is known, in Hebrew, as “amimut” or opacity. And for decades the United States has largely gone along with it.

Today, historian Avner Cohen, author of ‘Israel and the Bomb’, joins us to explain how Israel built its nuclear program in secret, and why that silence still matters today.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Late last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a new energy agreement that paves the way for a new pipeline to the West Coast. It includes an industrial carbon pricing deal, and is contingent on the approval of the Pathways project— a proposed carbon capture, utilization and storage facility.

The agreement was panned by environmentalists who said, among other things, that the Liberals are sacrificing the climate goals they spent the better part of a decade legislating.

Climate journalist Arno Kopecky writes for publications like The Narwhal and Canada's National Observer. He’s here to talk about whether Mark Carney is betraying his own environmental bona fides and a decade of Liberal groundwork.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Alberta premier Danielle Smith is calling a court ruling “antidemocratic” after judge struck down the petition which hoped to trigger a separatist referendum this fall.

The ruling came in part because it found that the province failed to consult with First Nations whose treaty rights would be affected by a vote to separate. Still, separatist groups and the province are appealing the decision and looking to forge ahead.

But how does Alberta’s separatist movement stack up against other secessionist causes and how should Ottawa handle it? The Globe and Mail’s Andrew Coyne joins us.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts