Ottawa struggles with the decision to approve the $20 billion Teck Frontier oilsands mine by the end of the month. As jobs plummet in Alberta, the federal government weighs its promise to the province against its commitment to the environment.
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Washington State Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib will receive the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award for his work on important issues for his constituents, including sponsoring bills that would guarantee paid sick leave for almost all workers and the Washington Voting Rights Act, which would prevent racially polarized voting systems. Freedom for Immigrants founders Christina Mansfield and Christina Fialho will also be honored with the New Frontier Award for their tireless efforts advocating for immigrants rights and protections.
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Feb 6, 2020
Last month, the National Archives and Records Administration apologized for doctoring a photo of the 2017 Women’s March to remove criticisms of President Trump. The shocking revelation that the agency had altered the image was first reported in The Washington Post. In an exhibit called “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote,” the National Archives had displayed a large image of the first Women’s March. But signs referencing Trump had been blurred to remove his name — including a poster reading “God Hates Trump” and another reading “Trump & GOP — Hands Off Women.” Other signs in the photo referencing female anatomy were also blurred. The National Archives initially stood by its decision to edit the photo, telling The Washington Post that the changes were made “so as not to engage in current political controversy.” For more, we turn to a historian who says this was only the latest example of “a great and growing threat to our nation’s capacity to protect and learn from history.” The National Archives reportedly is allowing millions of documents, including many related to immigrants’ rights, to be expunged. We speak with Matthew Connelly, professor of history at Columbia University and principal investigator at History Lab. His recent piece for The New York Times is headlined “Why You May Never Learn the Truth About ICE.”
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Feb 6, 2020
Columbia history professor Matthew Connelly’s recent New York Times op-ed reveals that the National Archives is letting millions of documents detailing sexual abuse and assaults against immigrants held in ICE detention centers be destroyed. Connelly says this is in keeping with Trump’s personal practice of deliberately tearing up his papers and throwing them away, thwarting long-standing traditions of basic White House record-keeping and flying in the face of rules mandated by the Presidential Records Act. “The National Archives tried to do the right thing in this case: They sent staff to the White House to Scotch-tape those papers back together again — I’m not even kidding,” Connelly says, adding that those archivists were subsequently fired. “I think more of us need to pay attention. In effect, this White House is being allowed to destroy evidence about things we may never know about.”
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Feb 7, 2020
The Chinese doctor who warned the government about a possible coronavirus outbreak has died after contracting the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital. Thirty-four-year-old ophthalmologist Li Wenliang warned his fellow medical workers about coronavirus on December 30. He was then investigated by police and accused of “making false comments.” His death has sparked a wave of anger and outrage in China, where the hashtag “We want freedom of speech” went viral on Chinese social media site Weibo this week. The death toll from the coronavirus has now topped 630 people in China, with more than 31,000 confirmed cases worldwide. The central Chinese government has ordered officials in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to round up and quarantine all infected residents. Residents are being ordered to report family members who show symptoms of the virus to authorities. Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Laurie Garrett says, “China is doing things that really no other nation on Earth could do” to contain the spread of the virus, including quarantining tens of millions of people. We spoke with Garrett just days before the whistleblower doctor died.
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Feb 7, 2020
The Federation of American Scientists revealed in late January that the U.S. Navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield Trident nuclear warhead. The USS Tennessee deployed from Kings Bay Submarine Base in Georgia in late 2019. The W76-2 warhead, which is facing criticism at home and abroad, is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) called the news “an alarming development that heightens the risk of nuclear war.” We’re joined by William Arkin, longtime reporter focused on military and nuclear policy, author of numerous books, including “Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State.” He broke the story about the deployment of the new low-yield nuclear weapon in an article he co-wrote for Federation of American Scientists. He also recently wrote a cover piece for Newsweek titled “With a New Weapon in Donald Trump’s Hands, the Iran Crisis Risks Going Nuclear.” “What surprised me in my reporting … was a story that was just as important, if not more important, than what was going on in the political world,” Arkin says.
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Feb 7, 2020
NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan gives viewers a tour of one of the International Space Station bathrooms, explains how it works and where the waste goes after use. — The Scoop on Space Poop: How Astronauts Go Potty: https://www.space.com/22597-space-poo…
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Premiered 83 minutes ago
It took years of fighting and an international effort to defeat the Islamic State group, but its caliphate and leader are now gone.
However, IS was a different type of terror group – its fighters didn’t travel alone, but brought entire extended families with them.
Many survived but few countries have made a decision about what to do with the 70,000 people – around 10,000 children among them – who travelled to Syria to support IS and are still held there.
The BBC met Nada Fedulla who was brought to Syria by her father but now does not know if she will be able to return home to Indonesia.
And followed the trail of an Indonesian couple who spent three years, in four countries, in search of martyrdom for IS.
Correspondent: Quentin Sommerville
Camera: Darren Conway
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Transition Studies 