On Jan 20, the Belmarsh Tribunal packed a room at the National Press Club in Washington, DC as thousands also watched online. Co-host Chris Garaffa was there to cover this historic event for CovertAction.

On January 8th, right-wing Brazilians stormed the federal building and Supreme Court in the capital of Brasília. Inspired by baseless accusations by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that the October elections were stolen, the rioters broke windows, smashed art, destroyed paintings, stole computers and more.

Peru has been in a period of crisis since December 7, when the Peruvian far right used their position in the country’s Parliament to illegally dismiss the government of President Pedro Castillo. Since then, tens of thousands of people from indigenous and peasant communities have taken to the streets to reject the new government of Dina Boluarte and demand the democratically elected Castillo be reinstated.

Western media described recent protests in China as “mark[ing] a new awakening” and represent a significant challenge to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China. After years of leading the world in addressing COVID-19, the Chinese government is indeed relaxing some of the lockdown regulations, but the situation is far more nuanced than the media is reporting.

In the last few months, the western media has been reporting on large scale protests sweeping Iran against the hijab in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amimi. The protests were described by some journalists as a revolution against the Islamic Republic, and have been highlighted as a movement led by young women. Is this true? Is there a revolution? How much of this is part of a major media disinformation campaign?  We are joined by Mazda Majidi, Iranian author, journalist, and anti-war activist who has recently returned from Iran.

In this special episode, we bring you voices from CovertAction Magazine’s December 1st fundraiser event in New York City. Featuring guests like Eva Bartlett, Ben Norton, Katie Halper, Randy Credico and many more, Pushback Against Empire brought together a wide perspective of voices to celebrate the 44th year of CovertAction and to help us build for the next 44 years.

On November 19th anti-war activists across the United States and across the world launched a new multi-national grassroots movement to demand the end to the current war in Ukraine and an end to NATO expansion. With the recent bombing of Poland, the serious threat of nuclear war looms larger around the globe and U.S. imperialism continues to wage it’s own proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

While we are still waiting for some election outcome, the results of the midterm show that the anti-democratic movement of the far right has been rejected by the majority of voters. Sean Blackmon, co-host of the daily radio show By Any Means Necessary, joins to talk about how he analyzes the results of last week’s elections and referendums. Sean shares his thoughts on how the GA Senate race got so close, the failures of the Democratic Party to excite voters, and impending threats to democracy.

Carl Zha, host of Silk and Steel Podcast, joins us to discuss the continued escalation of U.S. Cold War on China. The U.S. information war on China heats up with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent statement about the U.S. government’s prosecution of Chinese officials for alleged “attempts” to undermine U.S. democracy. What exactly does the U.S. hope to accomplish by indicting an official who will never stand trial?

Why is Facebook so desperate to make the Metaverse happen? Are the techno feudalists right when they say Facebook is too big to fail? With the decline of Meta, it seems a new era may be dawning in Silicon Valley as Facebook’s failed projects continue to pile up.