Background Briefing: November 29, 2023

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The Host of the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai Exposed as a Cynic Willing to Sacrifice the Planet for Money and Power

We begin with the damaging leak ahead on Thursday’s start on the UN’s annual climate summit COP 28 in Dubai from a whistleblower to the Center for Climate Reporting which reveals that the host and president of COP 28, Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi’s National oil company, plans to use the meeting to discuss fossil fuel exports with 30 foreign leaders. Joining us is Bill McKibben, a founder of the environmental organization 350.org who was among the first to have warned of the dangers of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and the author of more than a dozen books, including the bestsellers The End of Nature, Earth, and Deep Economy. His latest book is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? And we discuss his article at his substack The Crucial Years, “UAE corruption beyond description means COP 28 is likely over before it begins.”

 

Hugging Netanyahu is Hurting Biden

Then we look into polls that indicate a dramatic shift among young Americans away from support for Israel to sympathy for the plight of Palestinians as a result of the war in Gaza. Joining us is the pollster Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, the Director of the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has advised every U.S. administration from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama, serving as Advisor to the US Mission to the United Nations and as a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of State. He is the author of a number of books including The Stakes: America in the Middle East and The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East and is the co-author of the new book, The One State Reality: What Is Israel/Palestine?, and we discuss his article at Brookings, “Israel loses much of the support it gained after Hamas’ attack.”

Charles Koch’s $5 Billion Political Slush Fund Will Try to Elect Nikki Haley President

Then finally, with the Koch brother Charles Koch throwing his $5 billion political slush fund behind trying to elect Nikki Haley president in 2024, we will speak with an expert on dark money Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a Brennan Center Fellow and a Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law. She has testified before Congress, and has helped draft legislation and Supreme Court briefs and is the author of Corporate Citizen? An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State and Political Brands.