Democracy Now!

Israel is deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel in Gaza, prompting Human Rights Watch to accuse the occupation of utilizing starvation as a weapon of war. Human Rights Watch's Israel and Palestine director, Omar Shakir, says 97% of the groundwater in Gaza is unfit for human consumption after the destruction of pipelines and treatment sources, the rejection of humanitarian aid and the collapse of the medical system under incessant bombing, leading to mass dehydration and contagious disease. Shakir calls on the international community to condemn Israel's actions and to increase pressure on U.S. support in particular. The United States and Israel are isolated in the international community," Shakir says. The use of double standards in Israel and Palestine harms civilians all over the world."

In Part 2 of our interview with Fadi Abu Shammalah, the head of Gaza's General Union of Cultural Centers, he describes how his three children were finally able to flee to Cairo this morning. He is now working to secure safe passage for more than a dozen family members still stuck behind the blockade. The international community are silent. And a lot of them are supporting it," Abu Shammalah says.

As the Biden administration faces accusations of being too slow to help Palestinian Americans and their families trapped in Gaza, we speak with Narmin Abushaban in Detroit whose mother died from lack of medical care while waiting to leave Gaza. She is working now to rescue the rest of her family members. This comes as calls grow for the U.S. to grant temporary protected status (TPS) to Palestinians already in the United States. We are also joined by civil rights attorney Sophia Akbar to discuss a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of violating the constitutional rights of Palestinian Americans by withholding support for U.S. citizens, residents and their family members trapped in Gaza, despite having organized charter flights from Tel Aviv for Americans to leave Israel after the October 7 Hamas attack and having accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

We are joined in Cairo by Fadi Abu Shammalah, the head of Gaza's General Union of Cultural Centers, who describes the inhumane conditions he was able to escape in Gaza. Every city in the Gaza Strip is beyond our imagination," says Abu Shammalah. He notes that in just the last 36 hours, at least 170 civilians were killed. Witnesses say that the Israeli bulldozers buried the injured people in Kamal Adwan Hospital. They buried them while they are alive," says Abu Shammalah. They were still alive. They killed and they buried them." He calls this a war on Palestinian civilians, meant to destroy as much of Gaza's infrastructure as possible.

Israeli Strikes on Jabaliya and Rafah Kill Dozens, Pushing Gaza Death Toll Toward 20,000, Palestinian Journalists Adel Zorob, Abdullah Alwan and Haneen Al-Qashtan Killed by Israeli Strikes, In Tel Aviv, Pentagon Chief Calls U.S.-Israel Ties Unshakable," Pledges More Arms for Israel, U.N. Security Council Delays Vote on Gaza Ceasefire Resolution After U.S. Delegation Objects, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs SB4, Making It a Crime to Enter the U.S. Outside Ports of Entry, Egypt's el-Sisi Claims Victory in Presidential Election After Barring and Intimidating Opponents, Pope Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples But Won't Budge on Gay Marriage, Earthquake Strikes Northwestern China, Killing at Least 118 and Injuring Hundreds, EPA to Review Safety of Vinyl Chloride in Wake of Ohio Rail Disaster, Judge Denies Trump's Request to Toss Civil Fraud Trial, Former Election Workers Sue Rudy Giuliani Again After Winning $148 Million Defamation Suit, Italian Marxist Philosopher Antonio Negri Dies at 90

After some 200 countries at COP28 agreed to phase down fossil fuels, nations are facing pressure to block new oil and gas projects. A growing number of Democrats are calling on President Biden to stop massive new fossil fuel developments, and climate groups in the U.K. filed a lawsuit to block a massive new oilfield in the North Sea, saying it violates obligations to target net-zero carbon emissions. Without means of implementation, these are just words," says The Guardian's senior climate reporter Nina Lakhani, who covered COP28. She says the COP28 deal continues a tragic history of powerful, polluting countries denying their responsibility for climate change and refusing to support those most impacted. Equity is not anywhere to be seen in that final document that we got."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing calls for another ceasefire in Gaza after Israeli troops mistakenly shot dead three Israeli hostages who were shirtless and waving a white flag. This comes as Israel continues to target hospitals, refugee camps and journalists in Gaza. On Friday, Samer Abudaqa, a reporter from Al Jazeera, bled to death after being injured in an Israeli drone strike on a U.N. school. Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him for five hours. This is not the first time we've gone through this," says Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara of Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, that has impacted citizens like journalists, teachers and doctors the most. Gaza has been the target of this war, not Hamas." Bishara addresses how the United States is increasingly isolated in its opposition to a ceasefire, growing focus on Israel's collective punishment, and more.

HRW Accuses Israel of Using Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza as Sweeping Assault Continues, Pope Francis Condemns Shooting of Two Palestinian Women at Gaza's Catholic Church, Gaza Hospitals Have Become a Bloodbath" as Israel Targets Health Facilities, Residential Areas, Palestinian Authorities Call for Probe into Bulldozing Deaths at Kamal Adwan Hospital, Al Jazeera Journalist Samer Abudaqa Bleeds to Death After Israeli Drone Strike Amid Attack on Press, IDF Kills 3 Hostages as Israelis Demand Netanyahu Gov't Make Deal to Release Remaining Captives, U.K. and Germany Call for Sustainable Ceasefire in Gaza", Rudy Giuliani Ordered to Pay $148 Million to Georgia Election Workers He Defamed After Trump Loss, Trump Ramps Up Violent Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric as He Campaigns for 2024, Ohio Prosecutors Charge Black Woman with Felony Abuse of a Corpse" After Miscarriage, Opposition Parties Claim Vote Rigging as Serbia's Ruling Party Wins Snap Elections, Far-Right Argentine President Javier Milei Announces Plans to Crack Down on Protests, Chilean Voters Reject Replacing Pinochet-Era Constitution with Document Drafted by Conservatives

The Israeli military this week raided the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a renowned cultural institution whose mission is to fight for Palestinian justice, equality and self-determination. It's part of a wave of violence Israel has unleashed across the occupied West Bank since October 7, killing 58 people in Jenin alone even as the country intensifies its assault on Gaza. We speak with Freedom Theater artistic director Ahmed Tobasi, who was just released after being held for 24 hours. Two of his colleagues remain in Israeli detention. The Israeli soldiers believe we are not human beings," says Tobasi. You are under occupation, and that's your destiny as a Palestinian." He decries the decades of international impunity under which the oppression of Palestinians operates, and calls on Americans to resist the use of their tax dollars to fund Israel's violence. They believe no one in this world can ask them to stop," he says. We also get a reaction from Peter Schumann, the founder and director of the Bread and Puppet Theater, the legendary political and social justice-oriented theater company, marking its 60th year with a puppet show in New York City that is an ode to Gaza.

We speak with the acclaimed Russian American writer Masha Gessen, whose latest article for The New Yorker looks at the politics of Holocaust commemoration in Europe. Gessen was scheduled to receive the prestigious Hannah Arendt Prize in Germany on December 15, but the ceremony was postponed after some award sponsors withdrew support over Gessen's comparison in the article of Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. A smaller award ceremony is set for Saturday. Gessen says Germany's culture of learning about and atoning for the sins of the Nazi regime has morphed into steadfast support for the state of Israel despite its actions, while banning most forms of pro-Palestinian solidarity as part of a flawed effort to fight antisemitism. The cornerstone of this form of memory politics" is that you can't compare the Holocaust to anything," says Gessen. My argument is that in order to learn from history, we have to compare."

Death Toll from Israeli Strikes on Gaza and West Bank Tops 19,000, Starving Gazans Intercept Humanitarian Aid Trucks in Search of Food, Israeli Troops Kill Child, Block Ambulances and Tear-Gas Hospital in Occupied West Bank, Israel's Military Chief Says Gaza Assault Will Last More Than Several Months", U.N. Secretary-General Decries Unprecedented and Unbearable" Israeli Assault on Gaza, Jewish Protesters and Allies Organize Coordinated Actions Across U.S. for Final Night of Hanukkah, Peace Is the Only Path Forward": Labor Leaders Join Progressive Dems in Call for Gaza Ceasefire, House Passes $886B NDAA, Including Extension of Warrantless Surveillance Program, Record 50 Million People in Western and Central Africa Expected to Experience Hunger in 2024, U.N. Warns Sudanese Conflict Pushing Civilians to Famine-Like Conditions, Senegal Court Clears Path for Jailed Opposition Leader Ousmane Sonko to Challenge President Sall, EU to Open Membership Talks with Ukraine as Hungary's Orban Blocks $55B Aid Package, Brazil's Congress Overrides Lula to Reimpose Date Restrictions on Indigenous Land Claims

We look at student protests nationwide calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, including 41 students at Brown University arrested Monday at a sit-in demanding the school divest its endowment from weapons manufacturers like Raytheon and United Technologies, and a weeklong sit-in at Haverford College. One of the students who joined the protest has just returned to campus: Kinnan Abdalhamid, a junior who was shot two weeks ago along with his two friends, who are also of Palestinian descent, by a white man in Burlington, Vermont. We speak with Abdalhamid and Ellie Baron, an organizer with Students for Peace at Haverford College who is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. It's very heartwarming to see a collective body of students stand against a blatant genocide of my people," says Abdalhamid about support for Palestine at Haverford and other schools.

We discuss President Joe Biden's full support for a scorched-earth campaign" in Gaza with The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill, who says the U.S. is providing political cover and rushing weapons there and giving support to the most pernicious lies that Israel [is] telling." Despite the Biden administration's recent assertions that it is helping to restrain Israel, Israel's military and intelligence operation is significantly propped up by resources from the United States State and Defense departments, explains Scahill. This is a joint U.S. operation militarily and politically." Meanwhile, he says, Biden continues to repeat debunked falsehoods about pictures of beheaded babies from the October 7 Hamas attack.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are calling for Israel to be officially investigated for committing war crimes in its targeting of journalists. This comes after an internal Reuters investigation conclusively found that its journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by an Israeli tank shell fired on him and a group of six other journalists in southern Lebanon on October 13. We speak with investigation co-author and Reuters Lebanon bureau chief Maya Gebeily, who says the group of journalists did everything right," including being clearly marked as press, yet were still fired upon in two successive strikes, meaning the attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian law against the military targeting of journalists.

Israeli Attacks Kill 200 Palestinians in 24 Hours as Rains Increase Spread of Disease in Gaza, Israeli Army Raids Jenin, Killing 11 Palestinians and Arresting Leaders of Freedom Theatre, U.S. Stalls Sale of 27,000 Rifles to Israel over Settler Violence, Washington Post: Israel Used U.S.-Supplied White Phosphorus to Attack Civilians in Lebanon, Bernie Sanders Calls on Biden to Cancel Request for $10 Billion in Military Aid to Israel, Russia and Ukraine Trade Drone Attacks as Hungary's Orban Threatens to Block EU Aid to Ukraine, SCOTUS Will Hear Challenge to FDA Rules for Abortion Pill Mifepristone, SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Obstruction Charge in Jan. 6 Insurrection Cases, Tape Reveals Kenneth Chesebro Warned Trump over Fake Electors" Scheme After 2020 Election, House GOP Formalizes Biden Impeachment Inquiry, Hunter Biden Defies GOP Subpoena, Makes Rare Public Comments, Tesla Recalls 2 Million Vehicles over Flaws in Autopilot Software

President Biden appears to be caving to hard-line Republican demands for a new crackdown on asylum seekers and immigrants nationwide in exchange for more Ukraine funding. As negotiations on the emergency funding request continue, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas about how he and other lawmakers oppose some of the worst changes to our immigration system in decades." Casar and Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez also discuss how today's toxic brew" of border politics relates to 200 years of Monroe Doctrine policies punishing Latin America, forcing people to flee their home countries, and then blocking them from seeking asylum in the United States.

The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza: 153 U.N. members approved the resolution, 23 abstained, and just 10, including the United States, voted no." The vote is nonbinding but adds to the mounting isolation faced by the U.S. for its ongoing support of Israel's assault that has killed at least 18,000 Palestinians in just over two months. In an exclusive interview, Democracy Now! speaks with Palestinian diplomat Nada Tarbush, whose address to the U.N. went viral last month. Only a handful of powerful states have been trying to get Palestine off the agenda and been blocking any avenue to push for the rights of the Palestinian people under international law," says Tarbush. She also discusses how Zionists have disrupted Palestine's history of diversity by trying to create an ethnocracy through ethnic cleansing and colonization.

As the United Nations climate summit ends with nations pledging to transition away from fossil fuels instead of explicitly calling for a fossil fuel phaseout, we go to the COP28 site in Dubai for a debrief with Asad Rehman, spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition. He says the deal overseen by COP28 president and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Sultan Al Jaber is a very weak text" with lots of loopholes" that allows rich countries to avoid responsibility. If you're an oil and gas baron and CEO, you must be rubbing your hands with glee," says Rehman. This requires everybody to take action, but developing countries can only act if they're given the support."

Israel's Brutal Assault on Gaza Destroys More Schools, Homes, Hospitals as Death Toll Tops 18,000, IDF Uses Telegram Channel to Post Congratulatory Images of Killed and Abused Gazans, UNGA Overwhelmingly Backs Call for Ceasefire; U.S. Is Just One of 10 Nations to Oppose Resolution, Biden Cites Indiscriminate Bombing" of Gaza But Refuses to Halt Flow of Money and Arms to Israel, COP28 Ends with Historic Deal to Move Away from Fossil Fuels; Activists Say It's Full of Loopholes, Zelensky Fails to Gain Bipartisan Support for More Aid; Biden Weighs Immigration Concessions to GOP, Russian Antiwar Dissident Boris Kagarlitsky Freed from Detention, Poland Swears In Donald Tusk as Prime Minister; Extremist Lawmaker Extinguishes Parliament Menorah, Pakistan Rejects Indian Supreme Court Ruling Revoking Special Status for Disputed Kashmir Region, Arizona, New Mexico Supreme Courts Hear Pivotal Abortion Cases This Week

A Texas woman has had to flee to another state to have an emergency abortion after the state Supreme Court ruled against her. Kate Cox fled Monday after she had petitioned a judge to get an exemption from the state's near-total abortion ban when her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition and doctors warned her carrying to term could endanger her fertility. Unfortunately, it's one of hundreds, if not thousands, of comparable stories," says Dr. Bhavik Kumar, an abortion provider in Texas. While these politicians say there are exceptions, somebody really has to be at death's door before we can reasonably act in their favor." We also speak with Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, who says the Texas case could have a chilling effect" on people seeking abortions elsewhere in the country, including in Kentucky, where a pregnant woman is the lead plaintiff in a new class-action lawsuit that argues the state's ban on abortion violates its constitution. These laws, restrictions and attacks don't happen in a vacuum," says Wieder.

At the COP28 U.N. climate summit, a draft agreement released Monday omits a call to phase out fossil fuels, proposing reductions" instead. The United States, Canada and other rich countries have loudly championed a phaseout but are simultaneously approving new oil and gas projects eating up the planet's remaining carbon budget, says Meena Raman, head of programs at Third World Network and president of Friends of the Earth Malaysia. Developed countries must take the lead, and they must end fossil fuel production and consumption now, not in 2030, 2040 or 2050," Raman says. We also speak with South African climate and energy expert Tasneem Essop, who says any phaseout of fossil fuels must be just and equitable," giving poorer countries room to develop and putting the onus on the rich Global North to decarbonize first.

As relatives of hostages held in Gaza urge Israeli lawmakers to use diplomacy, not war, to free their loved ones, we speak to an Israeli peace activist whose 84-year-old mother was released by Hamas in late November as part of an Israel-Hamas hostage swap during the weeklong pause in fighting. We are demanding to release all the hostages," says Neta Heiman Mina, a member of Women Wage Peace. She says Israeli leaders must put a deal on the table" even if it comes with a painful price" that includes freeing more Palestinian prisoners, including some accused of violence. We must bring them home now. There is no time."

Israeli Troops Storm Kamal Adwan Hospital as Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis Deepens, Protesters Hold Global Strike to Demand Ceasefire in Gaza, Harvard Rejects Calls to Fire President Claudine Gay Amid Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Speech, Zelensky Visits Washington, D.C., to Press for More U.S. Military Aid to Ukraine, Jailed Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Goes Missing from Penal Colony, The Intercept: Indian Government Memo Targeted Sikh Separatists Ahead of Activist's Murder, Activists Slam COP28 Draft Agreement That Omits Phaseout of Fossil Fuels, Youth Activists in California Sue EPA for Failing to Regulate Greenhouse Gases, Special Counsel Jack Smith Asks SCOTUS If Trump Is Immune from Prosecution, Civil Trial Will Determine What Damages Rudy Giuliani Must Pay to Defamed Georgia Election Workers, Texas Supreme Court Won't Allow Woman with Nonviable Pregnancy to Seek Abortion

We get an update from one of the few hospitals still operating in southern Gaza from Ahmed Moghrabi, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, who describes horrific conditions. I've developed [a] psychological disorder," says Moghrabi, who himself is barely surviving on little food and clean water. Please stop this genocide against us. Stop this war. Please, please, I beg you." We also speak with Dr. Tarek Loubani, an emergency room medical doctor shot by the Israeli military in Gaza in 2018, about the arrests, killings and torture of his fellow medical workers by the Israeli military, and the enormous risk of disease as a consequence of the lack of essential aid and supplies available in the region. He predicts tens of thousands of deaths from starvation, dehydration and infectious disease will soon hit Gaza as Israel's assault continues in the coming weeks.

To discuss the shocking United States veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution requesting a Gaza ceasefire, we're joined by Shibley Telhami, who says President Biden's refusal to engage with popular calls for ceasefire is a shocking personal decision" that will have negative consequences for U.S. foreign policy and American standing" around the world. Members of the Israeli government clearly want more than self-defense," adds Telhami, and have created human rights needs in Gaza so massive that you need a ceasefire to deal with that." Telhami is professor of peace and development at the University of Maryland.

The Biden administration has bypassed Congress to approve an emergency" sale of over $100 million of tank ammunition to Israel. Congress was notified just hours after the United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire. We get response from Josh Paul, former director of congressional and public affairs for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees arms transfers to Israel and other nations. Paul resigned from the State Department in October to protest the Biden administration's push to increase arms sales to Israel amid its ongoing siege on Gaza.

University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill voluntarily resigned her position Saturday after a House Education Committee hearing last Tuesday on how colleges have handled antisemitism. Magill has faced demands to resign since September, when she refused to bow to pressure to cancel the Palestine Writes Literature Festival on campus. More universities face accusations that they have failed to protect Jewish students since the October 7 Hamas incursion into southern Israel amid a broader effort to restrict pro-Palestinian speech on campus. We speak with Peter Beinart, professor of journalism at the City University of New York and the editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, and with Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. This whole discussion seems to me to be the least important issue," says Bartov. What is most important now is that Israel now has been conducting a war for weeks and weeks in which it has killed thousands and thousands of Palestinians."

Displacement, Disease and Death Plague Gazans as Israel Continues Its Genocidal Assault, UNGA to Convene on Gaza Ceasefire After U.S. Vetoes Security Council Resolution, UPenn President Steps Down Amid Right-Wing Firestorm over Pro-Palestinian Movement on Campuses, COP28 Seeks Agreement on Fossil Fuel Phaseout Amid OPEC Pushback, TX Supreme Court Blocks Emergency Abortion; Kentucky Patient Challenges Abortion Ban, Oxford High School Shooter Sentenced to a Life Behind Bars, There Is No Alternative to Shock": Far-Right Javier Milei Sworn In as President of Argentina, Children of Jailed Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi Accept Nobel Peace Prize for Their Mother

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is calling for phasing out fossil fuels but has alarmed many climate activists as Brazil moves to join the oil producer alliance OPEC+ as an observer state. Paula Vargas, director of the Brazil program at Amazon Watch, lays out Brazil's environmental policy under Lula and Jair Bolsonaro's legacy of impunity for those attacking environmental defenders. Brazil has a big, big possibility of being the top leader in environmental change," but civil society must push leaders around the world to enact climate solutions, Vargas says.

Broadcasting from COP28 in Dubai, we speak with Jacob Johns, a Hopi and Akimel O'odham environmental defender who is leading the Indigenous Wisdom Keepers delegation at COP28. This is his first interview after surviving being shot in the chest by a far-right agitator in September. Johns and other Indigenous activists were holding a vigil opposing plans to reinstall a statue honoring the 16th century Spanish conquistador Juan de Onate in Espanola, New Mexico, when a 23-year-old shooter wearing a red MAGA hat fired on the crowd. Johns says he died in the airlift on the way to the hospital and is still dealing with medical issues from the shooting, but wanted to come to the climate summit to share Indigenous wisdom with the world. We as Indigenous people understand that as the old world dies, that a new one is created and that we must focus on that creation process."

At COP28 in Dubai, protests in solidarity with Palestine have faced severe restrictions. Asad Rehman, the lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, joined with human rights groups at an unofficial media briefing to explain how climate summit officials have threatened to debadge participants for even wearing Palestinian colors or sporting visual depictions calling for a ceasefire. This is probably the most restrictive we've seen," Rehman said. Everything we have tried to do has been within the U.N. rules, ... but the rules are being changed on a day-by-day basis."

Scholar and policy analyst Jehad Abusalim remembers his friend Refaat Alareer, the acclaimed Palestinian academic and activist who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City earlier this week. Refaat Alareer was a towering figure in Palestinian society, especially in Gaza," who used education and language as a weapon against oppression," says Abusalim, who speaks about the widespread destruction of schools and educators in Gaza by Israel's renewed bombardment, siege and invasion. The tragedy that has befallen the academic, scholarly and intellectual community in Gaza and in Palestine is unprecedented. Israel is destroying the foundations of society in the Gaza Strip."

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza has killed the acclaimed Palestinian academic and activist Refaat Alareer, along with his brother, his sister and her four children. Alareer was just 44 years old. For more than 16 years, he worked as a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza and authored dozens of stories and poems about life under Israeli occupation in Gaza. Whether it is my kids or any Palestinian kid or any Palestinian, no one is safe. No place is safe. Israel is bombing everywhere," Alareer told Democracy Now! on October 10.Previous interviews with Refaat Alareer: October 2023: Israel's 'Barbaric' Bombardment Is Part of Ethnic Cleansing Campaign May 2021: Israel Is Trying to Destroy Us: Gaza Father & Writer Speaks Out as Palestinian Death Toll Nears 200

Israeli Soldiers Strip and Detain Palestinians in Gaza, Including Journalist and Other Civilians, Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian Academic and Activist Refaat Alareer and Family Members, Netanyahu Threatens to Reduce Beirut to Rubble If Hezbollah Increases Attacks, Released Captives Confront Israeli War Cabinet over Response to Hostage Crisis, Venezuela Orders Oil Companies to Begin Exploring Disputed Essequibo Region, Texas Judge Intervenes to Allow Pregnant Woman to Receive Critical Abortion Care, Trump Supporters in Nevada and Wisconsin Brought to Justice Over Fake Electors" Scheme, DOJ Indicts Hunter Biden for Tax Evasion, Benjamin Zephaniah, Anti-Imperialist Poet and Activist, Dies at 65

Longtime Nigerian activist and poet Nnimmo Bassey joins us at COP28 in Dubai to discuss how false climate solutions" like carbon trading markets are hurting efforts to reduce emissions and prevent catastrophic global heating. People are making deals rather than talking about how to cut emissions at source," says Bassey. We're seeing a sellout of the African continent." Bassey is director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation and received the Right Livelihood Award in 2010 for his environmental activism.

As we broadcast from COP28 in Dubai, leading climate scientist Kevin Anderson lays out why he dismisses the annual climate talks as grand events" that do little to actually curb emissions. These COPs have become little more than a scam under which the oil companies and the other fossil fuel companies are hiding that nothing is being done," says Anderson. Decades of inaction make solving the climate crisis much harder, and Anderson notes technology and fairness have to go hand in hand" in order to save the planet.

We speak with celebrated Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha for his first interview after he was jailed and beaten by Israeli forces, when he was detained at a checkpoint in Gaza while heading to Rafah with his family. He was rounded up with scores of other Palestinians. I felt humiliated. I felt terrified and terrorized by this army because they were ordering us to do everything at gunpoint," says Toha, now in Cairo. He calls on Western leaders to stop supporting the violence against Palestinians. If you can't stop the war, if you can't stop the carnage, the genocide, just stop financing it."

More Palestinian Civilians Killed as Israel's Assault on Gaza Enters Third Month, As Israeli Siege Continues, U.N. Warns 97% of Gazans Have Inadequate" Food Supplies, Reuters Investigation Reveals Israeli Tank Killed Journalist Issam Abdallah and Injured 6 Others, U.N. Chief Antonio Guterres Invokes Article 99 in Rare Move to Force Debate on Gaza Ceasefire, Doctors Without Borders Holds Vigil for Medical Workers Killed in Gaza, Senate GOP Blocks $111 Billion Package with Military Funding for Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel, Gunman Kills 3 People on University of Nevada, Las Vegas Campus, Kevin McCarthy Announces Retirement 2 Months After Ouster as House Speaker, Presidential Hopefuls Attack Transgender Youth in 4th Republican Debate, Trump Says He Won't Be a Dictator If Reelected, Other Than Day One", Ex-President Alberto Fujimori Released from Peruvian Prison on Humanitarian Grounds", Norman Lear, Prolific Activist and Producer Who Changed the Landscape of Television, Dies at 101, Legendary Linguist, Professor and Public Intellectual Noam Chomsky Turns 95

As Vladimir Putin arrives in Abu Dhabi but does not plan to attend the COP28 summit in Dubai, we speak with Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair for the leading Russian environmental organization Ecodefense, about the climate impact of Russia's war on Ukraine and the renewed push at the summit to expand nuclear power. When you promote nuclear power, you have to understand it's diverting resources from renewable energy, and renewable energy is the real, most efficient answer to climate change," says Slivyak. He also discusses how the collapse of civil society in Russia has pushed him and other social activists to leave the country.

As Democracy Now! broadcasts from COP28 in Dubai, we look at how the United Arab Emirates is using its vast oil money to buy up the rights to land in many African countries in order to sell carbon credits to major polluters, a plan that critics characterize as a new form of colonialism. After failing to mitigate at the source," wealthy polluters now want to, basically, buy, on the cheap, African land," says Power Shift Africa's Mohamed Adow about wealthy nations' failure to deliver on climate finance and turn to a land grab" on the African continent. What they're doing is actually commodifying nature," says Adow, who describes carbon credits as an imaginary concept" amounting to permits to pollute."

Climate activist Harjeet Singh joins us for an update on the U.N. climate summit in Dubai, where fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber many countries' delegations. It is deeply, deeply problematic to see how fossil fuel lobbyists are taking over these climate talks," he says, noting that climate activists' fears of an industry takeover of the world's foremost gathering for climate governance appear to have come true. We can't just allow fossil fuel industry to define what is going to happen here," Singh warns, as financial interests continue to divert political energy away from decarbonization. Singh is the head of global political strategy with Climate Action Network and works on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global initiative to phase out fossil fuels and support a just transition.

As Democracy Now! broadcasts from the U.N. climate summit, Amy Goodman attempts to question the oil CEO presiding over the talks. COP28 president and United Arab Emirates oil CEO Sultan Al Jaber is facing criticism over the record number of fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance at the summit, and recently claimed there is no science" to back up calls to phase out fossil fuels in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

We go to Gaza for an update on Israel's attack, which is now being described as one of the worst assaults on any civilian population in recent times. As Israeli tanks enter Khan Younis and the Palestinian death toll tops 16,000, we speak with Yousef Hammash. The advocacy officer for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gaza describes how he and his family are facing internal displacement for the third time during the assault, this time from Khan Younis, where they had fled after Israeli warnings to head to the south of the Gaza Strip. Now in Rafah by the Egyptian border, they are struggling to find shelter and, like thousands of other now-homeless Palestinians, have resorted to living in a makeshift tent. I left everything behind," Hammash says about leaving his home in Gaza City, now destroyed. I didn't care what I was going to lose. I was looking for the safety of my family." Hammash says a paltry amount of humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza even as refugees of the war face starvation, dehydration and infection. The amount of aid that's coming to Gaza is literally not tangible," he says.

Israeli Forces Intensify Assault on Khan Younis as U.N. Official Decries Apocalyptic" Situation, IDF Spokesperson Lauds Reported Ratio of 2 Civilians Killed for Death of Every Hamas Fighter, U.S. Bans Visas for Settlers Involved in Violence; Divided Senate Votes on Israeli, Ukraine Funding, 14 Congressmembers Vote Against House Resolution Conflating Anti-Zionism with Antisemitism, AIPAC Throws Millions at Possible Insurgent Campaigns to Unseat Progressive Democrats, Advocates Condemn Lack of Attention to Sexual Assault Accusations Against Hamas, Senate Confirms 400+ Military Nominees After Sen. Tuberville Ends 10-Month Blockade, Woman Sues Texas After She Was Denied an Abortion for Nonviable Pregnancy, Drone Attack in Nigeria's Kaduna State Kills 85 Civilians Celebrating Religious Holiday, Honduras Issues Arrest Warrant for Suspected Mastermind in Berta Caceres Assassination

This year, there are at least 2,456 lobbyists at COP28, the U.N. climate summit in Dubai - nearly four times as many as last year - from companies like Shell, Total and ExxonMobil. The lobbyists outnumber the delegations of every country other than Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the summit, presided over by the CEO of the UAE's national oil company, Sultan Al Jaber. It's definitely impossible to ignore how front and center the fossil fuel influence is at this particular COP," says Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy at Corporate Accountability, who says the climate summit must kick out big polluters and reset the system so that it can finally end fossil fuels and advance real solutions and save millions of lives that don't need to be lost."

Broadcasting from COP28 in Dubai as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza, Democracy Now! investigates how militarism and war fuel the climate crisis. The jets, the tanks, the bombs, the missiles, all of these things that we are seeing raining down on people, they're all fossil fuel-dependent," says Deborah Burton, co-author of a new report that shows increased spending by NATO nations will divert millions of dollars from climate finance while increasing greenhouse gas emissions. We are absolutely going in the wrong direction." Shirine Jurdi, a women, peace and security expert with close colleagues in Gaza, lays out how women are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis and the global war machine. If we want to talk about real impacts and outputs out of this COP, we really need to look at militarization."

The World Health Organization is warning the crisis in Gaza is getting worse by the hour as Israel intensifies its ground and air assault across all parts of the Gaza Strip, including surrounding the Jabaliya refugee camp and bombing Khan Younis, where many had fled to from the north. With Israel's attack killing close to 16,000 Palestinians, Shaina Low from the Norwegian Refugee Council describes the hectic, chaotic, desperate" conditions on the ground and says she can barely get in touch with her colleagues in Gaza, let alone coordinate a humanitarian response to the destruction. If they can't get in touch with each other, our operations come to a standstill," says Low. We desperately need a ceasefire in order to be able to finally address these dire needs."

Gaza Death Toll Approaches 16,000 as Israel Intensifies Attacks and Lays Siege to Hospitals, Israeli Strikes Kill World-Renowned Researcher Sofyan Taya, Journalist Montaser Al-Sawaf, U.S. State Department Says It's Too Soon" to Judge Whether Israel Is Protecting Civilians, Lawsuit Accuses Netherlands' Government of Complicity in Israeli War Crimes, Death Toll from Tanzania Floods Rises to 63, Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Flood COP28 Climate Summit as Carbon Emissions Reach Record Pace, Trial Opens of Two Paramedics Charged with Negligent Homicide in Death of Elijah McClain, Ex-U.S. Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha Charged with Spying for Cuba, Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Bankruptcy Plan Shielding Sacklers from Opioid Liability

The U.N. climate summit underway in Dubai marks the first time in nine years that representatives from Human Rights Watch have been allowed access to the United Arab Emirates. We speak with researcher Joey Shea about toxic pollution from UAE fossil fuels processing, and the state of political rights in the authoritarian country - especially for migrant workers who constitute 88% of the population but lack many labor protections under the kafala system. There is no independent civil society in this country," says Shea, adding that there is sustained targeting of human rights defenders, activists, judges, lawyers, regular Emirati citizens" and anyone else who speaks out. Shea also warns that attendees of the COP28 conference are subject to mass surveillance from the moment they step foot in the country.

As Democracy Now! broadcasts from the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, we get an update on negotiations and more from Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want and lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition. He says developing countries must be compensated by rich countries for the impacts of the climate crisis and to allow for a just transition" away from fossil fuels around the world, not just in the Global North. The annual United Nations conference opened Thursday with delegates agreeing to adopt a new loss and damage" fund to help poorer nations deal with the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis, but it has raised just a fraction of what activists say is needed to address the annual cost of climate catastrophes. The United States only pledged $17 million for the fund. Meanwhile, COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber is facing a new wave of criticism after claiming there is no science" backing the need to phase out fossil fuels. Al Jaber is also the head of the UAE's state oil company ADNOC.