The latest on the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey in Ankara; the 538-member Electoral College officially casts ballots for the president of the United States today - how likely are faithless electors able to change the outcome?; a much needed recap on Russia's hacking scandals in 2016's political climate; we speak with 'La La Land's' score composer and location scout; and more.
What we know about the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in Ankara
Russia’s envoy to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot to death on Monday night during an art exhibition in the Turkish capital of Ankara. The attack was photographed and moments after the shooting were captured
The assassin shouts in Arabic: we've made an oath to Muhammad to die in martyrdom ... [It is] a revenge for Syria and Aleppo. https://t.co/pgf8n4gIXb
— Hassan I. Hassan (@hxhassan) December 19, 2016
, showing a man in a suit and tie holding a handgun and shouting over Karlov’s body.
For more on this developing story and what we know so far about the shooting, who carried it out, and what the possible motive may have been, BBC Turkish Service correspondent Rengin Arslan joins Larry from Istanbul.
WARNING: VIDEO LINKED ABOVE CONTAINS IMAGES THAT SOME MAY FIND DISTURBING. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Guest:
Rengin Arslan, correspondent with BBC’s Turkish Service in Istanbul; she tweets
Everything you need to know, but haven’t had time to process, about Russia election hacking
Leaks continue to trickle out about the alleged role Russia played in influencing the US presidential election.
AirTalk recaps all the related news that have come since the accusations started flying, and looks at what might happen next.
Guests:
Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist in Russia and co-author of many books on the Russian cyberspace, including his latest, “The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries” (Public Affairs, 2015). He tweets
Jeff Stein, National Security Correspondent, Newsweek
AirTalk politics: Watching as Electoral Colleges casts its votes, and next steps for US as we learn more about possible Russian election influence
The 538 men and women who make up the Electoral College began voting around 7am Pacific Time Monday morning on one of the most politically significant days for President-elect Donald Trump since he won the November 8th general election.
Most will be voting the same way that the results came out in their state on Election Day, though the divisiveness of this year’s contest and lingering dismay among some due to its outcome has caused some to call for electors to buck the trend and vote against Donald Trump. However, it would take 37 of these ‘faithless electors,’ as they’re called, to deny Trump the 270 electoral votes he needs for the presidency and it is highly unlikely that scenario would present itself.
We’re also following along as U.S. intelligence officials work to connect the dots between the hack into DNC emails and links to Russian hacking aimed at tilting the presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor. President Obama has said that the U.S. will respond to Russia at a time and place of our choosing. Russia, meanwhile, is downplaying the accusations, saying that the U.S. should show some proof or stop pointing fingers.
Guests:
Steve Shepard, Editor of the POLITICO Caucus & Chief Polling Analyst
Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist and founder and chief executive officer of Rodriguez Strategies; he is also a former senior Obama advisor in 2008; he tweets
Paris Dennard, Republican political analyst and former staffer for President George W. Bush and the Republican National Committee; he tweets
US pediatrics group issues warning on the online trading of breast milk
Infants born at a very low birth weight can greatly benefit from pasteurized, donated breast milk, but families should avoid feeding babies unpasteurized breast milk acquired through the internet or other informal networks because of the risks of contamination, according to a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Read the full story here.
Guests:
Rebecca Plevin, KPCC’s Health Reporter who has been following the story. She tweets from
Pauline Sakamoto, Executive Director of Mother’s Milk Bank in San Jose, Calif., the only nonprofit donor milk bank licensed in California
Sights and sounds of ‘La La Land’
The new movie “La La Land” is a romantic musical, so it lives or dies by the music of composer Justin Hurwitz - and judging by the early critical plaudits, it sings!
Larry speaks with Hurwitz about his close collaboration with director Damien Chazelle.
Plus, the film is generating a lot of buzz for being a modern-day musical, but for Angelenos it's special for having shot at 48 locations across LA County, including shutting down the 105 freeway for a large-scale dance scene in a traffic jam.
The movie shows off historic landmarks such as the Griffith Observatory and Park, Angels Flight downtown, the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena, the Warner Bros. lot and more.
What was the meaning behind each LA setting? How did the location managers pull off these shoots in a region teeming with people and traffic? Robert Foulkes, the supervising location scout, joins FilmWeek with all the glamorous and not-so-glamorous details.
Guests:
Justin Hurwitz, music composer, “La La Land;” Hurwitz also composed the Oscar-winning film “Whiplash”
Robert Foulkes, "La La Land" supervising location scout