Joe Biden promised to be the most progressive president in the history of the United States but he has maintained some of Donald Trump’s harshest immigration policies, opposes the Green New Deal and defunding the police. This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill challenges Democratic candidate for the US House of Representatives and outspoken progressive politician Nina Turner on Biden’s first 100 days in office. And in a Special Interview, investigative journalist and Washington Post Global...

China has consolidated its grip on Hong Kong by imposing a sweeping national security law and overhauling the electoral system; moves critics say strip the opposition of any space for dissent. This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill challenges Hong Kong Legislative Council Member Regina Ip on the principle of “one country, two systems” and the crackdown on basic rights. And in the Arena, Shireen Al-Adeimi, an anti-war advocate and assistant professor of education at Michigan State University...

In an UpFront special, we ask whether capitalism and climate justice are compatible. Marc Lamont Hill discusses with guests Naomi Klein, the author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, and Kshama Sawant, the first socialist Seattle City Council member in nearly a century, who has first-hand experience of organising against big business. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook:...

This week on UpFront Marc Lamont Hill challenges Hungary’s Secretary of State for International Communication and Relations Zoltan Kovacs on the erosion of democratic standards under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. And in the Arena, Barbara Ransby, a professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Jared Ball, a professor of communication studies at Morgan State University, discuss the case for reparations for the historical injustices because of...

Fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian and Eritrean forces has left thousands dead and forced more than 600,000 to flee to neighbouring Sudan. This week on UpFront we ask Getachew Reda, Executive Committee member of the TPLF, about the conflict and whether the group’s ultimate goal is an independent Tigrayan state. And a series of mass shootings in recent weeks has reignited the debate about guns in the United States, but will...

With more than 2,500 people arrested and, according to some estimates, at least 250 killed, the crackdown by Myanmar’s military on pro-democracy protesters is showing no signs of abating. In this episode of UpFront we ask the international envoy for Myanmar’s overthrown civilian government, Dr Sasa - who is in hiding after being charged with treason by the military junta - what is next for Myanmar and whether he would support an armed resistance. In a special interview, we speak with...

India, long considered the world’s largest democracy, slid down the democracy scale this month, with Freedom House classifying it as "partly free", and the V-Dem Institute calling it an "electoral autocracy" under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In this week’s UpFront, we challenge BJP spokesman Syed Zafar Islam on the government’s recent crackdowns on dissent. And in the Arena, we discuss Lebanon's financial meltdown and political crisis with Kim Ghattas, an...

In this episode of UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with climate activist Greta Thunberg about her awareness campaigns, why so few are treating climate change as an emergency and whether it is time for disruptive direct action. And in the Arena, we find out why US-based conspiracy theory QAnon is gaining followers overseas, with Melanie Smith, the head of analysis at Graphika, and Miro Dittrich, who monitors online right-wing populism in Germany. - Subscribe to our channel:...

Debates around free speech and “cancel culture” seem never-ending in democracies around the world. Central to the conversation are technology companies like Twitter and Facebook, which in the United States have played a role in recent months by denying former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters a platform for spreading disinformation. But could this be a slippery slope?  And who gets to decide what the limits are on free speech, if any? In this UpFront special, Marc Lamont...

In a special edition of UpFront, we ask Rwanda’s justice minister about the circumstances surrounding government critic Paul Rusesabagina’s sudden appearance in Kigali, after years of living in exile. Human rights organisations, members of the United States Congress and the European Parliament have described Rusesabagina's rendition to Rwanda as illegal under international law. Johnston Busingye admits Rwanda did pay for the plane that transported Rusesabagina to the capital and defends the...

A recent Oxfam study found that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s richest 10 billionaires have seen a wealth increase of half a trillion dollars – enough to pay for every person on the planet to get a vaccine. In this UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill discusses with economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis what is driving the staggering wealth inequalities and how governments are offering socialism for the rich, and austerity for the rest.

In this episode of UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill asks Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, why Israel should be exempt from an International Criminal Court investigation into potential war crimes. And in the Arena, we debate the future of Russia’s opposition movement - now that its leader has been jailed - with Russian chess grandmaster and activist Garry Kasparov and Professor Nina Khrushcheva. 00:00 Intro 01:05 Headliner 14:01 Arena - Subscribe to our channel:...

In this episode of UpFront, we discuss the surveillance industry and how it is operating unchecked with Ron Deibert, the director of Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog group in Canada and Luis Fernando Garcia, the director of R3D, a digital rights organisation in Mexico. And in a special interview segment, we take stock of the international community’s efforts to combat climate change with Nigerian environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey. - Subscribe to our channel:...

In this episode of UpFront, we debate India’s new agricultural laws with Anila Singh, spokeswoman from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and Yogendra Yadav, president of the Swaraj India Party. The reforms have triggered huge protests, with farmers saying the laws will put them at the mercy of big business but the government insists it will actually benefit them. And in a Special Interview, we ask Amnesty International’s Saad Hammadi about Bangladesh's plan to transfer thousands of Rohingya...

In this episode of UpFront we ask New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta whether New Zealand has failed to speak up on human rights violations in China, West Papua and Western Sahara. And in a special interview, we challenge Thailand government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri on the government’s heavy-handed response to a wave of protests calling for the prime minister to resign and the monarchy to be reformed. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on...

Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban announced they had reached a deal this week that would allow them to press forward with negotiations aimed at ending decades of violence. In this episode of UpFront, we speak to government negotiator Fawzia Koofi, one of the few women sitting at the table with the group, about whether peace is really possible. And in the Arena, we debate France’s controversial “security” law which has led to widespread protests. Critics say it’s a threat to civil...

Mass protests in Poland over the tightening of an already restrictive abortion law are showing no signs of easing. Since October 22, hundreds of thousands of people have rallied across the country over the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, and their grievances are now morphing into a broader rejection of the country’s governing conservative party. In this episode of UpFront, we debate the abortion ban and the protests it has triggered with Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Paweł Jabłoński...

Last year, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, he is waging war on his country’s northern region of Tigray. The conflict between Abiy’s government and Tigray’s leaders, The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has reportedly left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands to flee across the border into Sudan. In this UpFront special we hear from both sides of the conflict, ask them how we got to this point and whether the Ethiopian people are...

In this week’s episode of UpFront, Richelle Carey speaks to former Republican Congressman and Donald Trump supporter Joe Walsh - now a vocal Trump critic - about the future of the Republican Party. And in a Special Interview with epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, we ask whether a coronavirus vaccine will solve all of our pandemic problems. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook:...

Note: This episode was recorded on Thursday, November 5, 2020. In this episode of UpFront we ask former Congressman Jack Kingston why the president of the United States is repeatedly claiming, without evidence, that Democrats are "stealing" the election. And in the Arena, as more than 68 million Americans vote for President Donald Trump, we debate the future of "Trumpism" and ask whether it is time to end the Electoral College. 00:00 Intro 00:30 Headliner 10:14 Arena

The rise in recent years of right wing, so-called strongmen leaders - from Donald Trump in the United States, to Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India - has fuelled fears that liberal values are under attack around the world. Now as millions of Americans head to the polls, many worry a second term for Trump would put democracy under serious threat in the US. But are those fears overblown? And what are the signs of a democracy dying out? We debate on this UpFront special with...

US President Donald Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacy during the first presidential debate triggered renewed focus on his racist rhetoric. In this season's first episode of UpFront, we discuss Trump’s racism with journalist Jemele Hill, who faced a backlash for calling the president a white supremacist back in 2017 and was not long after suspended from the US sports network ESPN. And in the Arena, we debate whether an administration led by Democratic challenger Joe Biden in...

According to official figures, at least six people die every hour in Iran from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The Islamic republic has become one of the world's coronavirus epicentres, with the death toll surpassing 3,000 this week and the number of cases topping 50,000. As the virus spreads in Iran, the government has been criticised for its response to the crisis, particularly how it handled the situation in Qom, now the country's worst-hit city where the outbreak began....

With some 7,000 cases and 200 deaths, Brazil has more coronavirus infections than any other country in Latin America. The country's health minister warns the healthcare system could be overwhelmed by the end of April. Yet, President Jair Bolsonaro has been downplaying the pandemic. He has referred to the virus as a "little flu" and "hysteria" and even visited a busy market outside the country's capital, Brasília, in a bid to get people back to work. Brazilian Congresswoman Tabata Amaral...