PROGRAM NOTES 06/20/14- This weeks show features stories from NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN, THE VOICE OF RUSSIA, RADIO HAVANA CUBA, SPANISH NATIONAL RADIO, and RADIO DEUTSCHE-WELLE.

From JAPAN- In Brazil, protests against government money spent on the World Cup continue. In Tokyo there have been protests against the government attempt to reinterpret the constitution and allow collective self-defense. Japanese firms made their debut at an international arms trade show in Paris. The Chinese government is cracking down on critical journalists. The Japanese Environment Minister is trying to retract his assertion that money will solve the problems with Fukushima radioactive waste. In Fukushima, the attempt to build a frozen underground wall to stop radioactive water from reaching the ocean has failed. Sunni insurgents in Iraq have attacked the largest oil refinery.

From RUSSIA- British MP George Galloway discusses the duplicity of Western governments supporting al-Qaeda rebels in Syria, and then wanting to go to war with al-Qaeda rebels in other places.

From CUBA- US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning wrote an op-ed about Iraq in the New York Times. The US continued targeted killings through drone strikes in Afghanistan and other Muslim nations. Agents of Blackwater security forces, now known as Academy, are on trial in DC for the murder of Iraqi civilians. In Bolivia at the summit of the G77 plus China members ratified that the eradication of poverty and economic inequality were the main issues of our time.

From SPAIN- President Santos was reelected in Colombia and vowed to bring peace to the countryside. Russia stopped supplying gas to Ukraine until past bills are paid. Two brief press reviews on government surveillance of telephone data and zero tolerance for demonstrations during the coronation of King Philipe the 6th.

From GERMANY- Argentine President Christina Fernandez refuses to pay off hedge fund investors who had shares on its defaulted bonds. The Presidential election in Afghanistan is being called fraudulent by one of the candidates- his rival is a former World Bank economist. Separatists in eastern Ukraine rejected Kiev's proposed ceasefire, saying it is a ploy to disarm them. A natural gas pipeline in Ukraine was sabotaged though gas flow to Europe is maintained by a parallel pipeline.

"We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn."
-- Mary Catherine Bateson