Day: December 5, 2023

Background Briefing: December 5, 2023

The Target of a Lunatic Conspiracy Theory Who Trump Claims Encouraged Jan. 6 Violence on Behalf of the Deep State

We begin with one of Trump’s new targets who Trump’s lawyers named in court filings asking the DOJ for documents to support a lunatic conspiracy theory that our first guest today encouraged violence on Capitol Hill on behalf of the “deep state.” Joining us is John Nichols, who is The Nation magazine’s Washington correspondent. His books include The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics, and most recently, Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis.

 

Did Blinken Lean on Jordanian and Egyptian Leaders to Allow Palestinians to be Expelled Into Their Territories?

Then we examine reports from Egyptian and Jordanian officials that Secretary of State Blinken leaned on the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders to allow Palestinians to be expelled into their territories. Joining us is Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He is the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and was President of the Middle East Studies Association, and was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993. His books include The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917- 2017 , Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. has Undermined Peace in the Middle East and The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. We discuss his article at The Los Angeles Times, “How the U.S. has fueled Israel’s decades-long war on Palestinians.”

 

At COP 28 Oil and Gas Delegates Vastly Outnumber Climate Scientists, Activists and Indigenous People

Then finally, with fossil fuel lobbyists vastly outnumbering climate scientists, activists and indigenous peoples at the COP 28 climate summit led by the head of a petrostate’s oil and gas company, we speak with Susan Joy Hassol, the director of the nonprofit organization Climate Communication. She publishes the series “Quick Facts” with the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s SciLine on the connections between extreme weather and climate change.