The Current for Nov. 10, 2021
Today on The Current:
Tensions have been rising along the Poland-Belarus border, with thousands of migrants caught in the middle, with nowhere to go. We talk to Crystal van Leeuwen, the global co-ordinator of emergency response with Médecins Sans Frontières, about what she saw at the border recently; and discuss the politics behind the crisis with Yauheni Andreichyk, chief editor with Voices from Belarus; and Felix Krawatzek, a senior researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin.
Plus, climate change in the North is leading to melting ice, late snowfall, and changing animal migration patterns — all of which affects the people who live there. We check in with Inuit delegates at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow: Inuit Circumpolar Council in Canada Vice-President (International) Lisa Koperqualuk, and Dalee Sambo Dorough, chair of the same organization.
Then, France recently returned 26 artifacts stolen from Benin's Kingdom of Dahomey — nearly 130 years after they were taken. Chika Okeke-Agulu, a Nigerian art historian and African art professor at Princeton University, explains how stealing such objects strips people of their history, and why returning them is so important.
And multi-billionaire Peter Thiel may not be a household name, but journalist Max Chafkin says his influence has been felt from Silicon Valley to the White House. Chafkin joins us to discuss his new book The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power, and why he says Thiel's pursuit of both wealth and power has deployed some dark political arts.