FEATURING THANU YAKUPITIYAGE – The United Nations released its latest “Emissions Gap” report this week and by their own assessments, researchers called the findings “bleak.” About four years ago country representatives from all over the world gathered in Paris, France, for the COP 21 climate meeting at which the historic Paris Accord was signed. 

But as soon as he entered office, President Donald Trump pledged to pull the US out of the modest agreement and under his rule greenhouse gas emissions by the US have noticeably spiked. China has also increased emissions instead of leveling or reducing them. According to the report, “Countries collectively failed to stop the growth in global [Greenhouse gas] emissions, meaning that deeper and faster cuts are now required.”

The next UN climate conference, COP 25 takes place December 2nd in Madrid, Spain. 

Read the UN Emissions Gap report HERE.

Thanu Yakupitiyage, U.S Communications Manager, 350.org.

FEATURING ANDREW S. LEWIS – One of the oldest and most robust predictions of the impacts of climate change is that as the planet’s atmosphere warms, melting glaciers and greater precipitation will result in sea-levels rising. Small island nations around the world know this and are actively feeling its impact. Here in the United States, one community’s struggle against rising sea levels is the subject of a new book called The Drowning of Money Island.

Located on the southern end of New Jersey, as part of a 40-mile stretch of Delaware Bay Beaches in Cumberland County, Money Island is a poor community whose travails are chronicled by my guest.

For more information about his book visit https://andrewslewis.com.

Andrew S. Lewis, Contributing writer for Outside. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine and Guernica. His new book is called The Drowning of Money Island: A Forgotten Community’s Fight Against The Rising Seas Threatening Coastal America.

The United Nations has released a major new report on climate change finding a devastating lapse in reaching emissions goals set 4 years ago at the COP 21 UN climate conference in Paris, France. According to the Emissions Gap report, “The summary findings are bleak. Countries collectively failed to stop the growth in global [Greenhouse gas] emissions, meaning that deeper and faster cuts are now required.” Specifically researchers estimate, “By 2030, emissions would need to be 25 per cent and 55 per cent lower than in 2018 to put the world on the least-cost pathway to limiting global warming to below 2 ̊C and 1.5°C respectively.”

In other climate news, a new wildfire has broken out in Santa Barbara, California, coming at a highly unusual time of year. The so-called “Cave Fire” grew overnight to more than 4,000 acres and prompted the evacuation of thousands. California has been experiencing hotter and drier weather fueling more serious wildfires for many more months through the year than before.

In news from Washington DC, a federal judge late on Monday ruled that former White House Counsel Don McGahn is required to respond to a subpoena from House Committees conducting the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. In her ruling Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson pointedly called Trump out writing, “Presidents are not kings. They do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.” Justice Department lawyers immediately moved to appeal the ruling and asked Judge Jackson to put her decision on hold. McGahn has said he is willing to comply with the ruling. House committees hoped  that the ruling would sway Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify but Bolton has joined another lawsuit filed by his former aide Charles Kupperman saying that McGahn’s case did not include matters of national security. That parallel case continues to wend its way through courts. The courts may move too slowly for the House committees though, as a report may be expected as early as next week. According to Associated Press, “hundreds of pages from Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff’s intelligence committee were being compiled into an exhaustive report that will begin to outline whether President Donald Trump engaged in ‘treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors’ by withholding $400 million in aid as he pushed Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.”

In another court ruling related to the impeachment inquiry, a judge has ordered the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to release documents related to the delay in military funds to Ukraine. The documents in question are more than 200 pages of correspondence between the Pentagon,

FEATURING MEDEA BENJAMIN – Bolivia’s new interim regime headed by interim self-declared President Jeanine Añez is attempting to settle in. Signing a deal to call back military forces from patrolling and attacking protesters, Añez has also announced new elections to take place without former President Evo Morales who was forced to step down. She has also annulled the results of the last race he won. 

Meanwhile protests continue around Bolivia with hundreds of thousands of Morales’ supporters marching to demand his return and many mourning the killings of protesters. Hundreds of activists and scholars in the US have signed onto a letter saying, “We condemn the violence in the strongest terms, and call on the US and other foreign governments to immediately cease to recognize and provide any support to this regime.”

Read the statement HERE.

Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of human rights group Global Exchange and the peace organization CODEPINK. She is a long-time political activist who has also written a number of books.

FEATURING CHRISTOPHER RYAN – Our modern society has brought with it many conveniences from flush toilets, to electricity, refrigeration, high-speed transportation, and of course the Internet. But it has clearly come at a steep price – one that may spell doom for our species as climate change impacts are all around us. 

Christopher Ryan, author, speaker, and consultant whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, The Atlantic, and more. He is the host of a weekly podcast called Tangentially Speaking and his latest book is ‘Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress.’

Richard Spencer, secretary of the US Navy resigned under pressure from Defense Secretary Mark Esper over the reinstatement of a Navy SEAL that President Trump had pardoned. Chief Petty officer Ed Gallagher had been charged with committing war crimes and ultimately convicted of a minor charge. Secretary Esper says that Trump ordered him to allow Gallagher to retain his elite status in the Navy SEALS despite Navy leadership’s resistance. Esper accused Secretary Spencer of mishandling the situation and even attempting to offer the President a deal whereby Gallagher could retire from his position and retain his status if Trump stayed out of the case. Esper then demanded Spencer’s resignation.  In his letter of resignation Spencer maintained that it was integral to the Navy’s reputation to maintain discipline in its ranks.

A number of stories broke over the weekend pertinent to the House impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Internal emails from the US State Department obtained via a FOIA request by the group American Oversight, implicated Secretary Mike Pompeo in the scheme led by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to malign Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as part of the Ukraine scheme. Pompeo had refused to release the documents to House committees conducting the hearings but was forced to turn them over in response to the FOIA request. American Oversight’s Executive Director explained the significance saying the documents offer, “a clear paper trail from Rudy Giuliani to the Oval Office to Secretary Pompeo to facilitate Giuliani’s smear campaign against a U.S. ambassador.” 

Emails from the White House also became public as part of an internal review that showed officials close to Trump – in particular Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney – scrambling to come up with a legal justification to withhold US military aid from Ukraine as per Trump and Giuliani’s scheme. 

The New York Times interviewed two Ukrainian oligarchs Dmitry Firtash and Ihor Kolomoisky and found that Giuliani attempted to use them for dirt on Trump’s political rival Joe Biden in exchange for implied help with charges they were facing in the US. According to the Times, “Mr. Firtash, an energy tycoon with deep ties to the Kremlin who is facing extradition to the United States on bribery and racketeering charges.” Apparently Trump’s lawyer offered him, “help with his Justice Department problems — if Mr. Firtash hired two lawyers who were close to President Trump and were already working with Mr. Giuliani on his dirt-digging mission.” Those two lawyers were Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Giuliani’s associates who have been charged in the US with various crimes. A similar situation transpired with Mr. Kolomoisky. 

Congressman Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee has denounced reports suggesting that he too was involved in the Ukraine scheme. Nunes, who was one of the lead aggressive questioners in the publi...

FEATURING HUWAIDA ARRAF – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of corruption, bribery and fraud, throwing the longtime incumbent leader’s political future into question. It is the first time that a sitting Prime Minister has been charged in this manner. The New York Times summarized that the charges stem from, “allegations of giving or offering lucrative official favors to several media tycoons in exchange for favorable news coverage or gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The charges come at the same time that Israel is getting ready to hold an unprecedented third election this year after failing to form a government for the second time. Netayahu’s main rival Benny Gantz and others have called on him to resign in the wake of the charges but a defiant Netanyahu has decided to remain in power and called the charges a “coup.” 

Huwaida Arraf is currently the Palestine and Refugees correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali. She’s Palestinian American lawyer and human rights activist, and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. She is also the former Chair of the Free Gaza Movement.

FEATURING KRIS – The situation in Hong Kong continues to deteriorate with police and protesters involved in on-going clashes around the city. This past week saw the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong become the last site of mass protests as protesters occupied the campus and were surrounded by police. As of now fewer than a hundred people remain under siege at the university. 

Here in the US, both the House and Senate, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act which now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature. But China has expressed anger at the bill. 

We turn now to a protester joining us from Hong Kong who has agreed to speak with us about what is happening on the ground. He has chosen to use the pseudonym Kris, and cover his face with a mask to protect his identity.

Kris (pseudonym), a protester active in Hong Kong’s movement.

After three whirlwind days of public impeachment hearings hosted by House committees this week, Democratic lawmakers say the public part of the inquiry is done. On Thursday evening, after the very last of the witnesses testified, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff closed the proceedings with this powerful statement. Meanwhile Supreme Court justices planned to meet on Friday to discuss whether or not to take up the case over the House having access to Trump’s tax returns. Lawyers for House Democrats on Thursday told justices they need the returns for the impeachment process. 

Meanwhile rightwing media outlets like Fox News wasted no time in maligning the star witness from Thursday, Fiona Hill, a former member of the National Security Council at the White House with expertise in Russia. Hill had spent much of her testimony debunking the many conspiracy theories that Republicans and President Trump have been promoting. Some media personalities implied that Hill – a British-born US citizen – was “unAmerican.” On Friday morning President Donald Trump called in to his favorite television program Fox and Friends and for almost an hour ranted about the impeachment hearings, barely giving the hosts a chance to speak. Trump continued to repeat the conspiracy theories that Hill had debunked including a false claim that Ukraine has the DNC server.  Even the Fox and Friends hosts were skeptical. PLAY VIDEO. That’s President Trump admitting that he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine and basing it on a debunked idea that Ukraine had the DNC’s email servers. 

News media are reporting on an internal debate between Senate Republicans and the White House over how to proceed when the House inevitably impeaches Trump. According to the New York Times, “President Trump wants an aggressive defense, but White House officials and Republicans are divided over whether to aim for a brief process or a drawn-out spectacle.” And, top-ranking Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has just announced an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and a position he assumed on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma. The investigation is a thinly-veiled attempt at legitimizing Trump’s withholding of military aid from Ukraine. 

 A day after ten Democratic contenders for the Presidential nomination debated one another in Atlanta, frontrunner Joe Biden spoke at an event where he was called out by an immigrant rights activist over Obama-era deportations. Mr. Biden’s response was stunning. Meanwhile Trump’s latest Acting Secretary for Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, toured the US-Mexico border on Thursday and insisted that the controversial border wall would be built by the end of next year. The Trump administration has also official begun a controversial policy to send asylum seekers to other nations while they wai...

FEATURING JEFF COHEN – On the same day that the most damning testimony in the public impeachment hearings took place with former Trump loyalist Gordon Sondland confirming a quid pro quo, ten Democratic candidates gathered on a stage in Atlanta for the latest Presidential candidate debate. 

House Democrats plan to lay out next steps soon in the impeachment inquiry, potentially charging the President with bribery and obstruction of justice as candidates keep their eye on the White House. 

Jeff Cohen, media critic, writer and retired journalism professor at Ithaca College. He founded the media watch group FAIR, as well as the group RootsAction.org.