Greta Thunberg SCHOOLS Congress on Climate Change

Published on Sep 19, 2019
With short, simple answers, climate activist Greta Thunberg takes on questions from both Democrats and Republicans in a committee hearing on climate change.

Party leaders cast doubt on Liberal promise of net zero emissions

Published on Sep 25, 2019
Climate politics are taking centre stage as Justin Trudeau’s liberals promise Canada will achieve net zero emissions by 2050. His opponents are spotlighting their own environmental plans, while at least one is casting doubt on how achievable net zero actually is.

The Legend of Hambantota and China’s “Debt Trap” Diplomacy

Published on Sep 25, 2019
China’s critics, largely in the U.S., often hold up the Sri Lankan port in Hambantota as the cautionary tale of what purportedly can happen when a developing country fails to pay back its loans to Beijing. Because Sri Lanka fell behind in its payments, according to the story, China, in turn, took control of the port which is all part of a larger Chinese plan to acquire assets around the world from poor, highly indebted countries.

While this narrative is widely believed among certain politicians, the so-called “debt-trap diplomacy” narrative has been debunked by a growing of scholars and analysts. There just isn’t any evidence whatsoever to support the charge.

This doesn’t mean that politics don’t motivate some of China’s lending decisions, not at all, just that the way that the debt trap story’s been told is not accurate.

This week, Eric & Cobus speak with a pair of scholars who are joining a growing number of researchers who are attempting to change the discourse on Chinese. Matt Ferchen, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing and Anarkalee Perera, a lecturer in international politics and economics at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, recently wrote a paper that delves into the Hambantota case and then goes on to explain why asset seizures, the foundation of the debt-trap theory, is not a factor in Chinese lending to developing countries.

09/24/2019 UN Sustainable Development Goals/ Coexistence with biodiversity

Published on Sep 25, 2019

WATCH: Pelosi announces formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump

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Greta Thunberg and Youth Activists Take On World Leaders at U.N. Climate Action Summit

Sep 24, 2018

The U.N. Climate Action Summit kicked off in New York Monday with world leaders calling for action to prevent “apocalyptic” climate change. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said his generation had “failed in its responsibility to protect our planet.” Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg fought back tears as she gave an impassioned address.

Greta Thunberg: “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Trump later mocked the now world-renowned activist on Twitter, writing, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”

Meanwhile, Greta Thunberg and other youth climate activists filed an official complaint under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, calling on world leaders to protect future generations from climate catastrophe. We’ll have more on the historic action, and what took place at the summit yesterday, after headlines.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Announces Formal Impeachment Inquiry of Trump

VOA News

24 September 2019

Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump and allegations he sought a foreign government’s help into his 2020 re-election bid.After months of caution, Speaker Pelosi became convinced that Trump’s reported actions, and his administration’s refusal to share details, left the House no alternative but to move forward with an inquiry.The move has the potential to reshape his presidency and further divide the nation just a year before he plans to stand for re-election.

Youth & Indigenous Activists Take Center Stage at United Nations Climate Action Summit

Democracy Now!

Published on Sep 24, 2019

Scores of world leaders gathered in New York on Monday for the U.N. Climate Action Summit, but the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters announced few new measures to address the climate crisis. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence briefly attended the summit but left after just 14 minutes. At the beginning of the summit, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered an impassioned address to world leaders, explicitly naming their inaction on the climate crisis. Youth climate activists from around the world also spoke at UNICEF about a landmark new climate complaint they filed with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Finally, we speak with Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapó tribe, who traveled to New York to protest deforestation of the Amazon under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on His Debut Novel “The Water Dancer,” Slavery & Reparations

Democracy Now!

Published on Sep 24, 2019

Celebrated writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’s first novel, “The Water Dancer,” was released today. Centering on a man named Hiram Walker, who was born into slavery in 19th century Virginia, the novel is a “crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling,” a review in The New York Times stated. Over the past decade Ta-Nehisi Coates has become one of the nation’s celebrated writers. In 2014, he wrote a piece titled “The Case for Reparations,” which rejuvenated the push for the government to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves. His 2015 book, “Between the World and Me,” a National Book Award winner, was written as a letter to his adolescent son. In our New York studio, we speak with Coates about “The Water Dancer” and his attempt in his first novel to “get at American myth” that exists around race and reparations.

MICHAEL MANN

Frank Melli