Aleppo in Rubble, Arctic Ice, Political Cartoons

Coming up on today’s show:

• On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting to address the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo. Frederic Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and a former special advisor for transition in Syria at the U.S. Department of State, has the details. 

• South Korean President Park Geun-hye has asked parliament to decide how she can step down following a corruption scandal that has created a political crisis. Her father, Chung Hee, became president of South Korea after a military coup in 1961. Carter Eckert, author of “Park Chung Hee and Modern Korea: The Roots of Militarism, 1866-1945,” look at the likelihood of her impeachment, and puts her leadership into the context of her father’s historic and despotic rule.

• December 1st is World Aids Day. We look back at the progress made in the prevention and treatment of HIV with Suzan Meredith, who was diagnosed with HIV along with her two young children in 1997. She’s an ambassador for the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation and an author. Also weighing in is Dr. Donna Futterman, professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and director for the Adolescent AIDS Program at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York.

• On Monday night, wildfires in Great Smoky Mountain National Park roared into the resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, leaving at least seven dead, injuring dozens, and destroying more than 250 buildings. Larry Waters,themayor of Sevier County, Tennessee, which includes Gatlinburg, discusses the crisis at hand. 

• Despite heavy snowfall, extremely windy conditions and evacuation orders from state and federal officials, thousands of people continue their resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. But Doualy Xaykaothao, areporter for Minnesota Public Radio, tells us that a sense of unity prevails at the camps.

• Higher global temperatures means that more sea ice is melting, which endangers not only the ecosystems in the Arctic but threatens sea level rise across the globe. Julienne Stroeve, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and a professor of polar observation at University College London, keeps careful watch on the Arctic and its sea ice.

• Alison Bechdel‘s self-syndicated comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” ran for 25 years. It follows a group of socially conscious queer women, and served as a sharp critique of our country’s aggressive foreign policy and failure to respond to the threat of global warming. In this politically environment, Bechdel has resurrected it. She joins The Takeaway today.