School Vaccine Mandates; SCOTUS & Texas Abortion Law; G20 & Climate Change

US Supreme Court hears arguments in Texas abortion law. Will we see a further weakening of reproductive rights?

Joshua Harris, Vice President of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP and incoming VP of the Maryland NAACP, joins us to talk about news that the FDA has authorized emergency use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11, what this will mean for schools, what sort of pushback we will see from parents if vaccine mandates are instituted as a requirement for school attendance, and how this connects to a growing resistance against mandates, where we have seen walkouts, “sick-outs” and direct opposition to vaccine mandates, with cases like New York, where 2,000 firefighters have walked out on their jobs due to vaccine requirements. We also talk about whether we will see a migration of workers to states where vaccine requirements are less stringent, and we look at possible alternatives to sort out this fight.

China Dickerson, political strategist and National Political Director for Forward Majority, joins us to talk about the Supreme Court looking into Texas SB 8, the abortion law that puts the power to restrict abortions in the hands of private citizens and not state officials, what is at stake for Texas women if this law is allowed to stand, and legal stakes for the federal government, where 100 current and federal prosecutors and judges filed a brief calling Texas law SB 8 the most blatant attempt to subvert federal authority since the Jim Crow era. We also talk about what sort of resistance we have seen in Texas, whether a compromise will be reached, and whether we will see further erosion of abortion rights at the national level.

Jon Jeter is an author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is also a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents, and joins hosts Michelle Witte and Austin Pelli to talk about highlights from the G20 meetings, where climate change has taken center stage, and how the responsibilities borne by wealthier countries have been laid bare, considering the harm climate change is causing in developing countries, and Elon Musks’ $6 billion “offer” to solve world hunger.

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