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.
Agnes Callamard, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, who has been investigating the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi recently co-authored a report that suggests Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) hacked a mobile phone belonging to Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and The Washington Post.
"I believe," Callamard said, "the hacking of Jeff Bezos is linked to a targeted campaign against dissidents and against anyone of strategic interest for information, communication, and public relations."
Since effectively taking control of Saudi Arabia, MBS has been ramping up the country's influence abroad. Khashoggi wrote critically about the de facto ruler for The Washington Post and in October 2018 was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Though the Saudi government has jailed and sentenced to death some of the individuals who carried out the killing, Callamard has dismissed the process as a "mockery of justice".
"The individuals that had been identified as having, at the minimum, planned and organised the killing, those individuals are walking free," Callamard explained.
Callamard laments the response by countries in the West. In the US, where Khashoggi was a resident, President Donald Trump has not been shy in expressing his admiration for MBS, saying he would be a "fool" not to conduct business with the kingdom.
"So far, the governments of the United States, of France, of the UK, have been unwilling to challenge the crown prince for his behaviours, and by so doing, they are sending the wrong message," said Callamard.
This week's special interview is with the UN's Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, Agnes Callamard.
In a special edition of UpFront, recorded before Ennahda's announcement, Mehdi Hasan speaks to a panel of experts, analysts and activists about whether there can be a balance between Islamic and democratic values.
On this week’s UpFront, we debate Brexit and the prospects of a second referendum with Daniel Hannan, Conservative Member of the European Parliament and Lord Adonis, former Labour Cabinet Minister.
And we talk to Julián Castro, a former Obama cabinet official and a possible future US presidential candidate, about immigration, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and his vision for the future of the Democratic party in an age of Trump.
In this week’s UpFront, we discuss reform in Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the country's role in the war in Yemen.
Debating in a Special Arena are self-exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, founder of the Arabia Foundation Ali Shihabi, and the executive director for Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, Sarah Leah Whitson.
And as Donald Trump takes full credit for 2017 economic growth in the United States, we set the record straight with a Reality Check on the “Trump Bump”.
From pundits to US Senators and former officials, many have expressed concern that US President Donald Trump is mentally unfit for office. But the profession most capable of making this judgement—psychiatric and mental health experts and practitioners— have remained largely silent.
Mental health professionals usually abide by an ethical norm called the "Goldwater Rule", which states that "it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion [on a public figure] unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorisation for such a statement."
President Trump, however, is prompting some psychiatrists to speak out, arguing that his mental unfitness for office is apparent and uniquely dangerous.
"The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" is a new book that offers a collection of essays from 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts, all offering a bleak assessment of the president’s mental state. But is it even possible to diagnose Trump from afar in this way?
Bandy Lee, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and the editor of this new book, and Betty Teng, a trauma therapist and one of the contributors to it, join us to discuss their views and why they believe the US president is a danger to the world.
Editor’s note: Bandy Lee's assessments are her own views and do not represent those of Yale University.
In this week's UpFront, award-winning journalist and author Naomi Klein weighs in on how President Donald Trump is more of a brand than a politician, and what strategies his opponents can use to resist him. In the Reality Check, we examine whether Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war is really helping him to "save" his country. And in the Arena, we debate whether Hollywood is too close to the United States military.
In this web extra, we discuss the new leadership of Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and look at how the current Gulf crisis may shape future diplomatic relations.
"I think [Mohammed bin Salman] has miscalculated, once again," says Barbara Slavin, Director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council. "I think he has scored an own goal."
"[Mohammed bin Salman] is not going to have quick success everywhere and his biggest challenge, actually, is not in foreign policy, it’s in domestic policy, and in reforming and diversifying his economy, and that’s a huge undertaking," says Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
The panellists also discussed whether relations between Gulf countries will recover.
"I think it is absolutely possible," Haykel says.
"There will be concessions from both sides, but I think that Qatar, culturally and religiously, is an extension of Arabia."
"This has never been a cohesive group and now it may be fatally broken," Slavin says.
Waves of anti-government protests continue to rock Venezuela as its economic and political crises deepen. Is there a way forward? In this UpFront special, we speak to the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, about his stance on Venezuela. And in the Arena, we debate whether the Venezuelan government is authoritarian.
In this week's UpFront, we speak to former FBI agent and counter-terrorism expert Ali Soufan on the potential consequences of President Donald Trump's Muslim ban.
In the Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan points out the hypocrisy of global leaders of nuclear powers on their ever-expanding nuclear arsenals.
And in the Arena, we debate whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is outmanoeuvring his political opponents both at home and abroad.
With the UK set to withdraw from the European Union in early 2019, many are fearing the consequences for both Britain and Europe. Will the negotiations leave a lingering sense of resentment between them?
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's chief negotiator settling terms of the UK's withdrawal, says the EU is not "looking for revenge" and the terms won't be "punitive".
"What we are looking for is a fair agreement in which you can never have outside the European Union a better status than as member of the European Union," says Verhofstadt, who served as prime minister of Belgium.
Asked why 52 percent of Britons voted to leave, Verhofstadt blamed internal partisan politics and anti-immigrant sentiment.
In this web extra, Mehdi Hasan talks Brexit with MEP and European Parliament negotiator Guy Verhofstadt.
Donald Trump is the new president of the United States. What will that mean for the U.S. and for the rest of the world?
In this UpFront special, we looked at what the U.S. and the world can expect from a President Trump.
And in an interview with The Nation editor and publisher, Katrina vanden Heuvel, we examine the foreign policy legacy President Barack Obama will leave for Trump.
There has been much talk about US President-elect Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration. But Trump will be inheriting a well-oiled deportation infrastructure from the Obama administration, which has deported 2.5 million people - more than every single US president of the 20th century combined.
