Our weekly edition is a nationally syndicated one-hour digest of the best of our daily coverage.

Audio Stream | Podcast | Mp3 Download

This week on Uprising —

* On-going coverage of the Israeli assault on Lebanon with on-the-ground reports and political analysis
* A discussion of the current heat waves in the US and Europe and possible links to global warming
* US Senate passes the Child Custody Protection Act
* Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan on John Bolton and Collateral Damage
* Mumia Abu Jamal on Lebanon

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mumia Abu Jamal on Lebanon

GUEST: Mumia Abu Jamal, political prisoner and award winning journalist

Mumia Abu Jamal is an award winning journalist and political prisoner. We begin today’s show with a commentary about the Israeli assault on Lebanon.

Listen to Mumia’s audio commentaries at www.prisonradio.org.

Israeli Assault on Lebanon

GUESTS: Rania Masri, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Balamand (Lebanon) and the assistant director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Balamand, Bilal El Amine, writer based in Beirut, Lebanon, currently in Tyre.

An international conference to reach agreement on a cease-fire plan in the Middle East failed earlier this week. Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told media, “We received … permission from the world … to continue this operation, this war, until Hezbollah won’t be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed.’” He added, “all those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah.”

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who recently visited the region announced that the United States wants Hezbollah forces to be disarmed, to be followed by the deployment of NATO forces between the border region of the occupied territories of Palestine and the Litani river. Many Arab media commentators see this move as an attempt by the US to reshape the Middle East in it’s own interests.

Meanwhile, the southern Lebanese city of Tyre has been the focus of some of the worst Israeli airstrikes. Israel says that one of its targets was a building which housed Hezbollah offices. But among the 13 people injured were six children. So far more than 500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict erupted. More than 50 Israelis have died. The combat has caused massive internal displacement in Lebanon, with over three quarters of a million people fleeing.

Empire Notes on John Bolton and Collateral Damage

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on John Bolton and Collateral Damage.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Heat Waves and Global Warming

GUEST: Myles Allen, physicist and climate change scientist at Oxford University, Pardeep Pall, Graduate student in climate science at Oxford University

Deadly heat waves throughout the United States are causing blackouts and even deaths, particularly on the coasts. California authorities are investigating 38 heat-related deaths, mostly in the central valley area, with temperatures peaking at 115 degrees over the weekend of July 22nd. There have also been rolling blackouts in the state. Meanwhile in New York city, 4,000 people went for at least 9 days in a row without power in Queens. The first six months of 2006 were the warmest year in the US since record keeping began in 1895. The world is on average 1.4 degrees warmer now than in 1900, and that warming trend has increased since the 1970s. According to a NASA agency, the five warmest years in the last 100 have all occurred since 1998. One of the top US global warming computer modelers, Kevin Trenberth, told the San Francisco Chronicle “I think there are very good reasons to believe that the current US heat wave is at least partly caused by global warming.” Other experts say it’s too early to blame the current weather on climate change.

It’s not just the US however. Europe is also facing record temperatures. Britain faced its hottest July day on record last week. This is part of an on-going trend. Three years ago, nearly 15,000 died in France in the summer of 2003, with a total of 19,000 dying that year throughout Europe because of the blistering heat.

For more information, visit http://www.climateprediction.net

Another Attack on Reproductive Freedom

GUEST: Donna Crane, Deputy Director of Government Relations at NARAL Pro-Choice America, Julie Sternberg, Senior Staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

On July 25th, the U.S. Senate voted to pass the so-called “Child Custody Protection Act,” or S. 403. The bill would make it a federal crime for any person other than a parent or legal guardian to accompany a minor across state lines to have an abortion. It would also make it illegal for anyone, including a grandparent, aunt, or other trusted adult, to transport a pregnant teen out of a state to avoid the home state’s parental notification and/or consent law. The bill was passed 65-to-34, with 14 Democrats voting for the measure. There are currently 22 states that only allow minors to terminate pregnancies with parental consent; another 12 demand that the minors notify their parents. In April 2005, the House of Representatives passed the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, although significant differences exist between the House and Senate versions. President Bush has already promised to sign the bill if the differences can be worked out.

For more information, visit www.prochoiceamerica.org, or www.aclu.org.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Abolition of a woman’s right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State.” — Edward Abbey