First Class Grift | DeProgram with Ted Rall and Jamarl Thomas

<p>Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and political analyst Jamarl Thomas deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. </p><p>Today we discuss:</p><p>• <strong>Low-cost airlines</strong> are asking the Trump administration for <strong>$2.5 billion</strong> to offset some of the cost of fuel, which has surged because of the war with Iran. <strong>Spirit Airlines is negotiating a loan of up to $500 million</strong> from the government; the government would have the right to purchase ownership stakes in the airline through financial instruments known as warrants. The government could end up owning as much as 90% of the Spirit, in its second bankruptcy in two years.</p><p>• A joint offensive by Tuareg separatists of the Azawad Liberation Front and JNIM militants linked to Al Qaeda represented a major setback for <strong>Mali’s military junta and its Russian paramilitary partners</strong>. Defense minister Lt. Gen. Sadio Camara, a key liaison between the Malian Army and Russian paramilitary forces, was killed in the coordinated attacks. </p><p>• Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of former <strong>Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov</strong>, went on <strong>trial in absentia in Switzerland</strong> in connection with alleged bribery and money laundering involving assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. She is in a “prison colony” in Uzbekistan. Swiss prosecutors say Karimova developed and ran a <strong>crime ring known as “The Office</strong>” that involved several dozen people and multiple companies. She is accused of depositing funds “of criminal origin” in Switzerland and abroad, and arranging for safe deposit boxes for the deposit of cash, jewelry and other valuables.</p><p></p><p>MERCH STORE: <a href="https://www.deprogram.live" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.deprogram.live</a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://x.com/tedrall" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://x.com/tedrall</a></p><p><a href="https://x.com/JamarlThomas" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://x.com/JamarlThomas</a></p><p></p><p>LIVE ON RUMBLE: <a href="https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShow</a></p><p>SPOTIFY: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8Zu</a></p><p>APPLE MUSIC: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-ted-rall-and-jamarl-thomas/id1825379504</a></p>