What A Day - The Catastrophic Effects Of Climate Change Hit Nigeria

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked in their San Francisco home early Friday morning. The alleged assailant was reportedly looking for the Speaker – who was in Washington, D.C. at the time. The attack comes amid heightened fears of political violence before the midterm elections.In Nigeria, more than 600 people have died and 1.4 million others have been displaced from their homes due to severe flooding since September. Mary Annaïse Heglar, co-host of Crooked’s Hot Take, tells us how climate change has contributed to the disaster.And in headlines: a massive crowd surge in Seoul left at least 153 people dead, a pair of car bombings killed at least 100 people in Somalia, and leftist Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election over right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Show Notes:Vote Save America: Every Last Vote – https://votesaveamerica.com/every-last-vote/Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

it's monday october 31st i'm treyville anderson and i'm priyanka arabindi and this is what a day where we're encouraging you to read all future tweets from our social media accounts in the voice of someone who doesn't want to be there anymore yes although to be honest you could have been doing that for a while yeah it's it's not all Elon's fault, but he's certainly not helping. Not at all. On today's show, officials in South Korea are searching for answers after a deadly stampede during Halloween festivities in Seoul. Plus, Lula defeated Bolsonaro to become Brazil's next president. But first, the latest on the attack against Paul Pelosi. Early Friday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 82-year-old husband was attacked

in their San Francisco home. The assailant, who was identified as 42-year-old David DePape, was reportedly looking for the speaker, shouting, where is Nancy, as he broke into their home. She was in Washington, D.C. at the time, but obviously Paul was not. What do we know about what happened? I remember it being, you know, just a lot of stuff on social media as it was going down. Yeah, it's really scary, actually. So DePay broke into their home through the back door. According to law enforcement sources who spoke to CNN, he had a bag with him that had zip ties and duct tape, like not planning anything good here. Pelosi was able to call 911 around 2.30 a.m.

after telling DePayne that he needed to use the bathroom, which is where his phone was charging. When the police arrived, they found the two men fighting over a hammer. They told them to drop it, which is when DePayne grabbed it and began hitting Pelosi with it before he was arrested. Pelosi was taken to the

hospital. He needed surgery to repair a skull fracture, and he had serious injuries to his right arm and hands. He is expected to make a full recovery, but in a letter to all members of the House on Saturday, Nancy Pelosi said that she and her family are, quote, heartbroken and traumatized over what happened. I can't imagine. So what do we know about this guy? Since this happened, a lot of news outlets have reviewed DePayne's online presence. He spread a lot of QAnon far-right conspiracy theories on his blog. He shared anti-Semitic and hateful posts. He referenced 4chan, just like a real cesspool of shit on there.

It's also important to note that this happened less than two weeks away from the midterm elections. That call of, where is Nancy, really echoes what we saw during the January 6th insurrection when rioters invaded the Capitol building and were actively looking for her. According to San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, quote, This was not a random act. This was intentional. He went on to lament this growing political violence and violence against elected officials in this country. Right. And this is definitely not the only instance of this we've seen in recent years.

Obviously, there was January 6th, as you mentioned. There were attacks on the FBI after the raid of Mar-a-Lago back in 2019. A man sent homemade pipe bombs to a bunch of Democrats who criticized Trump. Like it's been happening more and more, you know, over the last few years. What's been the response to this latest attack? Like you said, the conversation around political violence and security has been growing for a while now. So senior leaders like Nancy Pelosi typically have a security detail while they're traveling or if they're in the Capitol, but that does not extend to everybody

in Congress, certainly doesn't extend to their family members. According to one Democratic aide, lawmakers were looking at this attack like an attempted assassination against the Speaker, which it very well could have been had she been home. I would say that lawmakers are definitely more on edge about their security, especially after this happened. And that's not just Democrats. This extends to Republicans as well. Many Republican politicians condemned the assault. However, they are very quick to say that it's a both sides issue. They don't really seem to take much responsibility for the right wing conspiracy theories that have seemed to motivate many of the more recent acts of violence. But speaking of conspiracy theories, Elon Musk, who finalized his deal to acquire Twitter late last week, posted a now deleted tweet basically questioning the circumstances of this attack on Pelosi. He promoted a baseless article from a site that has been notorious for publishing fake news.

So, you know, just everything you expected from his rise here at Twitter. The day he took over on Twitter, the site was flooded by anonymous trolls who were spewing slurs and hate speech in order to celebrate. A lot of them were apparently trying to test how much, quote unquote, free speech is now allowed on the site. But Musk says he's going to create a content moderation council so that Twitter isn't just like this free for all where people can say whatever they want. But, you know, reports that he's planning huge cuts at the company aren't really inspiring confidence that he'll be able to do this and moderate the content on the platform in a sufficient way. I don't think anyone is actually expecting this to be like a net positive as it relates

to Twitter. No, certainly not. And that's unfortunate. If he's leading by example, like we're going in a terrible direction. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks for that, Priyanka. Now on to an international story with implications for us all.

Over in Nigeria, more than 600 people have died and 1.4 million others have been displaced from their homes. This is a result of severe flooding the country has faced since September, which according to government officials is the most devastating episode of seasonal floods Nigeria has seen in a decade. 32 out of the country's 36 states have been hit by these catastrophic floods, and nearly 440,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged or destroyed. For reference, that's over a million acres. Extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon have both led to these floods. Some have also noted a supposed lack

of infrastructure and proper early preparation by Nigerian officials as reasons why the damage is so bad, which unfortunately, all of this is expected to impact the food supply there soon. Humanitarian agencies also fear that a health disaster could be brewing as stagnant flood water is the only available alternative for drinking, cooking, and bathing, and the country has already seen a rise in cholera infections. According to UNICEF, quote, more than 2.5 million people in Nigeria are in need of humanitarian assistance, 60% of which are children, and are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning, and malnutrition. By the way, a continued rise in cholera infections

could be even more devastating for the country. the World Health Organization warns there's already a global shortage of cholera vaccines. But the ultimate reason we're seeing this devastation, which is similar to what we've reported is happening in Pakistan and Puerto Rico and Florida and other places ravaged by natural disasters. It all comes back to, you guessed it, climate change. To talk a bit more about why we should all be aware of what's happening in Nigeria, I spoke to Mariana E. Hegler, co-host of Crooked's Hot Take. I started by asking her about the current situation on the ground in Nigeria. Some of the areas that have been flooded the worst have not received any relief at all yet, partially because it's so difficult to get there. I've read a lot that lots of folks on the ground are very frustrated

with the federal government and their reliance on a personal responsibility sort of thing for people to prepare or evacuate from the storms. It was kind of like on them, like, we'll warn y'all, but we're not really going to do anything else. But I, as an American citizen, I feel kind of uncomfortable criticizing the Nigerian government these types of disasters, these types of catastrophes from happening again? We've seen flooding has been a huge concern across the globe over the last year in particular. There's a couple of different ways to approach the prevention of this, right? Like you could prevent the unusual rainfall from happening. And so that's one way to prevent them. The other way is to invest in infrastructure such that the unusual rainfall does not create these sorts

of circumstances. We have to do both of those things. That's what we call in the climate world mitigation versus adaptation, and they're not versus at all. You know, especially at this point, you can't adapt to something you don't mitigate because then you just wake up with a whole new crazy world every day. It doesn't even make sense. I think we have to do both of those things. And in order for Nigeria to be able to invest in its infrastructure, it's going to need to get out from under that amount of debt. And that's going to need to look like some sort of form of climate reparations, which is shaping a lot of the discourse around COP, the Conference of the Parties at the UN in Egypt this year.

It's the biggest international climate talks and it's taking place starting November 8th and going for about two weeks. Speaking of long term promises and plans, as it relates to this entire conversation we're having, what are you expecting to come out of that? I never know with the UN conferences. I mean, the whole purpose of them was supposed to have been to stave off climate change, to stop us from getting to this point. This is the 27th COP. So as far as achieving this goal, my hopes are not high. But what is useful about COP is that countries from the front lines of the climate crisis get to confront those most responsible for the climate crisis. And so I expect to see a lot of those sorts of confrontations. It'll be interesting to see how folks respond to that. You know, there's a lot of really brilliant analysts and activists going, and I'm sure they've got all sorts of events planned for talking about the responsibilities for climate change, reparations for climate change, which people call loss and damages is basically reparations.

And the need for that is getting clearer and clearer. They call them the V20, the 20 countries designated most vulnerable to climate change, are talking about stalling their debt payments because they need that money to invest in their infrastructure and protect their people through climate change. The scale of this devastation, it feels like it should make this a major news story, but it isn't apparently being treated that way. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you a little bit about it, because I was looking at the numbers and I was like, oh, this is a huge impact that we're seeing. From your vantage point, why should disasters like this or the floods that caused so much damage in Pakistan be a concern for us here in the U.S. or really, you know, anywhere in the so-called developed world?

We should care about what happens to one another. It should matter to us because the United States is the biggest historical contributor to climate change. This is our responsibility as a country to do something about this. They should not be suffering for the sins of the global north. You know, people will be quick to say, well, Nigeria is an oil giant. And Nigeria is not an oil giant. It just has a lot of oil. Nigeria has not gotten rich off of that oil. Other companies have gotten rich off of Nigeria's oil. We should also care about it because that's looking dead at our climate future.

And particularly for black folks in the United States and people of color in the Global South just period. But I look at what's happening in Nigeria and I see myself. I look at what's happening in Nigeria and I see Katrina. As a climate change advocate and activist, are you seeing the type of action and response that you think is like necessary to kind of turn back? Oh, I heard that chuckle to turn back the clock. Girl, no. The conversations around climate change, the fact that climate

reparations is front and center, is both evidence of how bad things have gotten, but also how much more advanced the climate conversation has gotten. And I think that that is an improvement. And clean cars have gotten way further than they used to be. You know, like, that's an instance where the industry itself has embraced the need for this and found no victory is too small to celebrate. There's also some cases of big victories, but compared to the climate crisis, compared to the challenge that we face, the thing is that

the stakes are really, really, really high. And the bar is really, really low. That was my conversation with Mary Anna East Hegler of Crooked's Hot Take. That is the latest for now.

We'll be back after some ads. Now let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Headlines. A massive crowd surge in Seoul left at least 153 people dead and dozens of others injured on Saturday, becoming one of the worst peacetime disasters in South Korea's history. Tens of thousands of people had gathered in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district, to celebrate Halloween. But the festivities took a deadly turn when part of the crowd surged into an alley. Survivors said there was no room to escape and people were packed together so tightly that they couldn't even breathe. According to officials, most of the victims were in their 20s or 30s and some were still in their teens. South Korea's president

declared a period of national mourning for the dead until November 5th. It's so scary and it's so sad. At least 120 people are dead after a century-old bridge collapsed in western India on Sunday. Local media reported that about 350 people were on the pedestrian bridge when it crashed down into the river below it. The bridge, which was built during Britain's colonial rule, reopened to the public just last week after undergoing months of repairs. There are questions about whether the private company that owns the bridge received the proper safety clearances from the government. A pair of car bombings killed at

least 100 people in the Somali capital of Mogadishu this weekend. The country's president said at least 300 people were hurt in the blasts and warned the death toll could rise. The al-Qaeda-aligned extremist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. Al-Shabaab militants have fought the Somali government for over a decade and have also launched attacks in neighboring Kenya. It's a deadly weekend all over the world. Yeah. Florida's Board of Medicine voted on Friday to draft a rule that would ban all trans youth in the state from receiving gender-affirming care.

This marks the first time that a state's medical board has pursued such an extreme measure, and the move would block anyone under 18 from receiving puberty blockers, hormone treatments, or gender-affirming surgeries. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and his administration have led the effort towards this kind of ban for months. As a reminder, transition-related care is backed by multiple major accredited medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. In the word of the great songwriter, Why y'all so obsessed with me? Why? Leave us alone.

Why? It's getting weird. Come on. alone why it's getting weird uh come on uh and some possible positive news some sort of justice has come for two men convicted of killing malcolm x even if it is 50 plus years too late new york has agreed to pay 26 million dollars to khalil islam and muhammad aziz whose convictions related to malcolm X's assassination were thrown out last November, but not before they each spent 20 years in prison.

The exonerations were the result of a 22-month investigation by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, which found that prosecutors, the FBI, and the NYPD all withheld evidence in the 1966 trial of Aziz and Islam that likely would have led the jury to find them innocent. Islam passed away in 2009. He didn't live to see the courts clear his name, unfortunately. But Aziz is 84. You know, it's a rough day on WOD. This is our happiest story. It is. It is. The trees that are left standing in the Amazon breathed a heavy sigh of relief last night as

Brazil's right-wing and anti-environmental president Jair Bolsonaro lost his runoff election to leftist hero Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula won by a razor-thin margin, receiving 50.9% of the vote to Bolsonaro's 49.1%. In his acceptance speech, Lula called for an end to hunger, inequality, and pledged to stop the destruction of Brazil's rainforest. As we went to record at 9.30 p.m. Eastern last night, Bolsonaro predictably had not yet conceded. Be on the lookout for some voter fraud conspiracies from him that push the entire genre forward in the coming days. Not looking forward to that.

But you know what? At least we got a good result. Happy there. Absolutely. We'll take it. Absolutely. Wrapping up with some slightly lighter news, a store that seems like it was created so its workers could file for a union election has seen its workers file for a union election. It's a Starbucks that's also an Amazon store in Manhattan, and its employees say they have two jobs worth of responsibilities, but only one job's worth of paychecks. The store is officially called a, quote, Starbucks pickup with Amazon Go. And what that means is it incorporates Amazon's cashierless checkout system with a Starbucks mobile order counter. If that sounds like it'd be hard to administer, it's because it is.

And workers there say they don't have the resources they need to keep things running smoothly. TBD on how Starbucks and Amazon will respond. We can only hope that their respective efforts at union busting somehow cancel each other out. Okay, couple thoughts here. One, Starbucks pick up with Amazon Go. That name just does not roll off the tongue. Please, keep it snappy. Two, still no fucking idea. We read this during our read-through. We read this before. We're reading this now.

Still no idea how this concept works. Makes no sense to me. But you know what? I do hope that what results from this is just a mega union. It cancels each other out. This is the biggest union the world has ever seen. Absolutely. It's what we've been waiting for.

And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, hug a tree in the Amazon and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading

and not just election results coming out of Brazil, like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. I'm Treville Anderson. And don't make me go back on Twitter.

Please, mom, do not make me go back there. I am not having a good time. I just want to go home. It's not going to be cute. And I hate that for us. Listen, the party's on Instagram now. Give us a follow. It's not gonna be cute and I hate that for us. Listen, the party's on Instagram now. Give us a follow. It's a good time. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

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