Contributing Writers

This week U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines, where she said the U.S. would defend the Philippines “in the face of intimidation and coercion” from China and vowed to expand the U.S. military presence in the country even after former bases leaked toxic waste into the environment. We recently spoke about the environment and more with Filipino activist Yeb Saño at the U.N. climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Noam Chomsky remembers the life and legacy of longtime peace and civil rights activist, lawyer and author Staughton Lynd, who has died at the age of 92. Lynd faced professional blowback after he was a conscientious objector during the Korean War and an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and later supported U.S. soldiers who refused to fight in Iraq. We feature an extended interview excerpt from when he appeared on Democracy Now! in 2006 to discuss the U.S.

The situation in Iran is “critical” as authorities tighten their crackdown on the continuing anti-government protests after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called morality police. United Nations human rights officials report Iranian security forces in Kurdish cities killed dozens of protesters this week alone, with each funeral turning into a mass rally against the central government.

As the World Cup begins, we look at the host country of Qatar’s labor and human rights record. “This is the deadliest major sporting event, possibly ever, in history,” says Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch, who describes how millions of migrant workers from the world’s poorest countries have faced deadly and forced labor conditions working on the $2 billion infrastructure.

A gunman wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15-style rifle attacked an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs late Saturday night, killing five people and injuring at least 25. Two Club Q patrons managed to disarm the shooter, a 22-year-old suspect with ties to an extremist family, before he was taken into police custody. The attack came on the the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, and police are investigating the attack as a potential hate crime.

Rich countries agreed to establish a “loss and damage” fund at the close of the two-week-long U.N. climate summit in Egypt to help the Global South deal with the worst effects of the climate catastrophe. The fund is a major breakthrough for Global South countries, which have been demanding a similar mechanism for the past 30 years but faced opposition from the United States and other large polluting nations.

In a wide-ranging interview recorded in Cairo, we speak with Laila Soueif and Sanaa Seif, the mother and sister of British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, about his health, his case, his family and his hopes for freedom. After visiting him in prison, they describe how El-Fattah started a water strike on the first day of the U.N.

We continue our coverage from the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with prominent Russian environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the Russian environmental organization Ecodefense and winner of the 2021 Right Livelihood Award for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia.

As the World Cup begins, we look at the host country of Qatar’s labor and human rights record. “This is the deadliest major sporting event, possibly ever, in history,” says Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch, who describes how millions of migrant workers from the world’s poorest countries have faced deadly and forced labor conditions working on the $2 billion infrastructure.

A gunman wearing body armor and armed with an AR-15-style rifle attacked an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs late Saturday night, killing five people and injuring at least 25. Two Club Q patrons managed to disarm the shooter, a 22-year-old suspect with ties to an extremist family, before he was taken into police custody. The attack came on the the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, and police are investigating the attack as a potential hate crime.

Rich countries agreed to establish a “loss and damage” fund at the close of the two-week-long U.N. climate summit in Egypt to help the Global South deal with the worst effects of the climate catastrophe. The fund is a major breakthrough for Global South countries, which have been demanding a similar mechanism for the past 30 years but faced opposition from the United States and other large polluting nations.

We continue our coverage from the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with prominent Russian environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the Russian environmental organization Ecodefense and winner of the 2021 Right Livelihood Award for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia.

We speak with prominent Ukrainian climate scientist Svitlana Krakovska at the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, about how the Russian war in Ukraine has intensified calls to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Krakovska is the head of the delegation of Ukraine to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.

Ukrainian climate activist Svitlana Romanko joins us after she was suspended from the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, when she accused Russian officials of war crimes and genocide at an event on Wednesday. Romanko is the founder and director of Razom We Stand, an organization demanding a total permanent embargo on Russian oil and gas.

The family of imprisoned British Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah visited him on Thursday for the first time since he ended his full hunger and water strike, which they say occurred after he collapsed inside his prison shower last week. El-Fattah had intensified his strike on the first day of the U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh to draw international attention to the country’s human rights violations and protest his seemingly indefinite imprisonment.