2018 was the fourth warmest year on record. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if we want to prevent the world from warming more than 1.5℃ by 2030, global greenhouse gas emissions would need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels. What’s at stake if we don’t act now?

#BiggerThanFive

The UN says there is a climate crisis disaster once a week. One of these crises has hit India's sixth largest city. Chennai is nearly out of water. Bigger Than Five visited the city of eight million, to see how people there are coping with the water shortage.

#BiggerThanFive

Extreme droughts and flooding in India, a heat wave in Europe and security threat warnings in the US. Global emissions are on the rise, prompting the United Nations to warn about what it calls the risks of 'climate apartheid', where the wealthy pay to escape the devastating consequences of climate change, leaving the poor to suffer. Are big polluters ignoring the climate crisis and the risks it poses to their countries and the world-at-large?

Guests:

Myron Ebell- President Trump’s Former EPA Transition Chief & Director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Rebecca Carter- Deputy Director of the Climate Resilience Practice at the World Resources Institute

Francesco Femia- Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of The Council on Strategic Risks & Co-Founder of The Center for Climate and Security

#BiggerThanFive

Its no secret that US President Donald Trump has always sought warm ties with Russia. He's repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin despite US intelligence agencies pointing to Moscow's interference in the 2016 US election.

In their recent meeting at the G-20 summit in Japan, the two leaders made light of these allegations, saying that they will focus instead on expanding bilateral political and economic ties and will begin consultations on nuclear arms control.

Meanwhile here in Washington the Pentagon says the US is underestimating the scope of Russia's global rise. In a new study, the US Department of Defense warns that the US is ill-equipped to counter what it calls Russia's ' increasingly brazen political warfare across Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Latin America"", urging the United States to step up its game.

So, Donald Trump set the stage for Russia's return and the revival of a multipolar world order?

Guests:

James Woolsey

Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency or CIA from 1993-1995.

James Carden

Contributing writer at The Nation magazine. and a former adviser on Russia policy at the US State Department.

Matthew Kroenig

Deputy director at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and author of "The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the United States, Russia, and China Today"

Moscow residents share their thoughts about President Putin and Russia's re-emergence on the international stage.

Over the last decade, under President Putin, Russia has been playing an increasingly significant role in international affairs. So how did Moscow achieve its global comeback?

China has seen an unparalleled economic transformation, propped up by state-owned enterprises and industrial subsidies, and previously powered by coal. But how does it measure up to its main rival, the US?

China’s growing global economic influence has disrupted the US-led world order. With four decades of economic growth, China has refused American demands for structural changes to its economic model. The Trump administration's decision to confront China with an aggressive trade agenda has left the global economy on edge. Is the spat really about ensuring fair competition? Or is the US trying to block China's rise?

Guests:

Curtis Ellis- Former Senior Policy Advisor with the 2016 Donald J. Trump campaign, Policy Director with America First Policies and former Special Advisor to the US Secretary of Labor

Craig Allen- President of the U.S-China Business Council and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for China at the U.S Department of Commerce

Sourabh Gupta- Senior Fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies

Tags:

Bigger Than Five, China, United States, Trade, Trade War, Commerce, Economy, Ghida Fakhry, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Huawei, India, Russia, Belt and Road Initiative

The trade war has brought uncertainty and frustration to Beijing, but it has also galvanized nationalism. How is the US-China rivalry playing out in Beijing? Bigger Than Five went to the Chinese capital to find out.

Daesh (ISIS) seized Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in June of 2014. They ruled the city for nearly three years. So what was life for those who were trapped in the city? Two Mosul residents, Nagham and Mohamed, share their stories.