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On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and Sputnik News analyst and producer Walter Smolarek.

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and much of official Washington is closed. New members of Congress have been sworn in and have returned home to their families. But the rest of the world hasn’t come to a stop. The hosts take a look at this week’s major stories.

Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and producers Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.

We all know the story of Thanksgiving. Native Americans welcomed newly arrived pilgrims, showed them how to hunt and forage for food, and the two groups celebrated and gave thanks. But that’s a lie. The first mention of Thanksgiving came in 1627, six years after the Wampanoag tribe helped the pilgrims, and immediately after those same pilgrims massacred an entire Piquot village and celebrated their so-called victory. So what does Thanksgiving mean to Native Americans? Brian and John speak with Andrea Carmen, executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council, which is hosting their annual Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island tomorrow, broadcast on KPFA Radio at 6am Pacific.

President Trump broke with his own Intelligence Community yesterday when he said that the CIA did not have a smoking gun proving that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman ordered the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. A CIA analytic report said that MBS did indeed order the hit. The President’s statement exposed a rift in his administration over how to handle the fallout. Professor Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of Tehran, joins the show.

The EU Commission this morning again rejected Italy’s budget for 2019, paving the way for financial sanctions to be imposed in the coming months. The Commission Vice President said that the budget is in “serious non-compliance with EU rules” and could lead to political instability and as much as $4 billion in fines. Sputnik News analyst Walter Smolarek joins Brian and John.

The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a bill — and the State Senate is considering it — that would ban abortions after just six weeks gestation. Another bill being proposed in Ohio would open up the death penalty as a possible sentence for an abortion. Jane Cutter, the editor of LiberationNews.org, joins the show.

The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen, Brian Griffiths, arrived in the capital Sana’a today in a renewed push to get the various sides in the war there around a negotiating table. Griffiths has convinced the government and the Houthi rebels to agree in principle to begin talking. Brian and John speak with Brian Terrell, a long-time peace activist and also co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.