PROGRAM NOTES 04/21/17- This weeks show features stories from NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN, RADIO HAVANA CUBA, SPANISH NATIONAL RADIO, and SPUTNIK RADIO.

From JAPAN- The US has warned North Korea that if it instigates a fight, it will get one. North Korea says it will continue building military might to protect the country. The White House says there was some confusion about where their aircraft carriers were in the Sea of Japan. A global chemical weapons watchdog says it positively identified sarin gas, or a similar substance, in victims in Syria, but does not know who released them.

From CUBA 150 delegates will attend a seminar in Cuba on peace and the elimination of foreign military bases. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched to reject coup plans by the right-wing opposition. Mexican journalists continue to be killed at an alarming rate. The US National Security Advisor went to Afghanistan a few days after the US dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the country.

From SPAIN- Alison Hughes reports on the referendum in Turkey which changes the constitution and grants sweeping powers to the presidency. At least 126 Syrians, mostly civilians who were being evacuated, were killed over the weekend in a suicide truck bombing- Alison reads part of an article on the event written by Robert Fisk.

From RUSSIA- Afshin Rattannsi interviewed famed documentarian John Pilger on the US missile attack on Syria. He says that the attack was meant as a threat to numerous nations around the world, and a political move to establish Trump as a real president. Pilger points out that many people and organizations that were criticizing Trump are suddenly giving him respect. And the threat of using nuclear weapons in Korea is unacceptable to the vast majority of people and countries in the world.

"I wouldn't go to war, as I have done, to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket."
--Major General Smedley Butler USMC, 1933