As President-elect Joe Biden unveils key members of his team who will tackle what he called the “existential” threat of the climate crisis, we speak to former Environmental Protection Agency official Mustafa Ali, who led the agency’s environmental justice program until resigning in 2017 in protest of the Trump administration’s policies.

Under pressure from progressives and communities of color, President-elect Joe Biden vowed Saturday to make environmental justice and science top concerns as he selects his climate team, which he formally introduced Saturday. If confirmed, many will represent historic firsts, including Michael Regan, who will be the first Black man to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

As Congress is rushing to pass a new $900 billion coronavirus aid package, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is calling the new relief package “totally inadequate, given the nature of the unprecedented crisis that we face.” Sanders took to the floor of the Senate Friday to call for $1,200 emergency checks for every working-class adult and $500 per child. We air portions of his address.

A shocking exposé in The Intercept reveals CIA-backed death squads in Afghanistan have killed children as young as 8 years old in a series of night raids, many targeting madrassas, Islamic religious schools. In December 2018, one of the death squads attacked a madrassa in Wardak province, killing 12 boys, of whom the youngest was 9 years old.

Indigenous and environmental activists have been holding daily protests against the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, cutting through Indigenous territory and running under more than 200 streams.