Duke University
Guest professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University; co-author of a biography of Winnie Mandela, as well as How France Lost Africa and Black and French!; former Africa Editor for the French daily Le Monde
Can the United Nations Bring Peace to Darfur? After the genocide in Rwanda, the United Nations General Assembly accepted responsibility to intervene when governments are not protecting their own people from mass atrocities. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has reportedly said that is fundamental to the future of the UN itself. In Darfur, the western province of Sudan, the commitment called "the responsibility to protect" is facing its first test, as Sudan's President hired the man human rights leaders call " the poster child for atrocities ." Is there hope for international intervention? Will it be like Rwanda all over again?
ANC Deeply Divided over Vote for New Party Leader After 55 years of disciplined unity, South Africa's ruling party is engaged in a bitter dispute over leadership, which could determine who will be the country's next president. President Thabo Mbeki cannot run for a third term in 2009. Today, he's being challenged as leader of the African National Congress , the party that's ruled the country since apartheid ended 13 years ago. Jacob Zuma , fired as Mbeki's deputy, leads the opposition and is a popular figure. We get an update from Craig Timberg, Johannesburg Bureau Chief for the Washington Post , and Stephen Smith, Professor of African Studies at Duke University and former Africa Bureau Chief for Le Monde.
The Search for Solutions in Darfur In Sudan's Darfur province, a reported 450,000 people have been killed in the past four years and two million are now homeless refugees. Last week, saying that "the brutal treatment of innocent civilians in Darfur is unacceptable," President Bush announced a package of sanctions against the Sudanese government, led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Then he pulled back--at the request of the new Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, who asked for more time for diplomacy. Meantime, Darfur's humanitarian crisis continues. The US has used the term "genocide," but others contend that ignores the root causes of a conflict that goes beyond ethnicity and culture. Are more peacekeepers needed? Is there any real peace to keep? What does climate change have to do with it?
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
The week that wouldn't quit Will next week get even weirder? (Special one-hour episode)
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.