Day: May 12, 2022

Briefings

Background Briefing: May 12, 2022

On By gram

 

Israel’s Killing of a Popular Al Jazeera Journalist Roils the Palestinian Territories

We begin with the killing of a popular reporter for Al Jazeera Shireen Abu Akleh, who has covered the Palestinian territories for 25 years and is an American citizen. Joining us is David Hearst, the Editor of Middle East Eye who formerly was the chief foreign leader writer of The Guardian, former Associate Foreign Editor, European Editor, Moscow Bureau Chief, European Correspondent, and Ireland Correspondent. His latest article at Middle East Eye is “Shireen Abu Akleh killing: The West cannot wash away the stain of complicity” and we discuss the backpedaling by Israeli authorities who initially blamed Palestinian gunmen but it is becoming more and more likely she was killed by a sniper with the Israeli Defense Forces who shot her in the neck which was unprotected since she was wearing a blue helmet and flack jacked clearly marked back and front with the word PRESS. 

 

Orban’s Hungary is the Lone Holdout as the E.U. Moves to Ban Russian Oil

Then we examine a concerted effort by the E.U. to stop financing Putin’s war against Ukraine that is threatening NATO by banning the imports of Russian oil which all member states have signed on to except for Hungary. Putin’s friend the kleptocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban is holding out for a greater compensation package and we will discuss the dilemma for the E.U. which is cutting off funds to Orban because of his illiberal anti-democratic regime at the same time being forced to bribe him to join in the ban on Russian oil. Joining us is Kim Lane Scheppele, a Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 1994-1998, she lived in Budapest, doing research at the Constitutional Court of Hungary and teaching at both the University of Budapest and at Central European University. After 1989, Scheppele studied the emergence of constitutional law in Hungary and Russia, living in both places for extended periods. She is the author of The International State of Emergency: The Rise of Global Security Law and 9/11 and The Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law: How the UN Security Council Rules the World and we discuss why Orban is the favorite role model of pro-Putin American Christian Nationalists and authoritarians like Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump.

 

The U.S. Passes the Grim Milestone of One Million Covid Deaths

Then finally, with today’s announcement that the U.S. has passed the one million deaths threshold of Covid victims we speak with Andrew Noymer, epidemiologist and professor of Population Health and Disease Prevention at the University of California Irvine. We also discuss the global death toll from Covid of 6,283,388 which is more likely to be 14,910,000 according to the WHO’s excess mortality figures.