Episode 207

The left-wing government in Venezuela is fighting back against its sea of troubles and appears to be winning. US-sponsored ‘color revolutions’ previously used to go only go one way: the defeat of the target and their replacement by stooges. Not so Venezuela, where the successor to president Hugo Chavez has struggled with economic and financial problems, low oil prices, US-financed subversion and even deadly violence. All rather familiar in Latin America over more than half a century, but President Nicolas Maduro - clinging tightly to the constitution - has begun to win elections. Recently returned from his role as an observer of the latest set of polls is writer and journalist Calvin Tucker. So we invited him into the Sputnik studio to tell us what he found.

And it’s the bleak mid-winter in Britain in the 21st century, so of course there must be a crisis in the NHS. Health trust chairmen resigning, the least popular health secretary residing, staff abandoning ship, waiting lists lengthening, potential privatization looming: what’s not to fear? Dr Bob Gill is a general practitioner, filmmaker and activist in support of the NHS, so we asked if he would join us this week to tell us just what we can do to stop the rot.

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