UC Santa Barbara / US Geological Survey / Famine Early Warning Systems Network
Chris Funk is a research director for the Climate Hazards Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a geographer with the US Geological Survey and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
World hunger: What's America's role? Seventy-million people are "food insecure." Famine has been declared already in one country and predicted in three more — in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The UN set a deadline for tomorrow: $4.4 billion for food and water. Less than a tenth has been received despite drought, disease and warfare. The US has led the world in past disaster relief, but President Trump wants massive cuts, and his aides are asking why America should care in the first place. Meantime, humanitarian groups say Africa faces what could be "one of the biggest humanitarian crises since World War II."
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.