The Current for Jan. 1, 2021
Today on The Current with guest host Catherine Cullen:
Amnesty International Canada's new secretary general Ketty Nivyabandi discusses how the pandemic only exacerbated inequalities and human rights abuses around the world.
Loujain Alhathloul, a women's activist who was sentenced by Saudia Arabia's anti-terrorism court to nearly six years in prison, has been targeted and punished for speaking out about human rights abuses in that country, her brother Walid Alhathloul says.
Taiwan-based freelance journalist William Yang discusses the arrest of Zhang Zhan, who posted interviews online of residents of Wuhan, China about the COVID-19 pandemic. He says China's government is trying to control the narrative around its pandemic response, and several journalists have been prosecuted as a result.
In case you didn't hear earlier, there was an election in the U.S. We check in with the CBC's Susan Ormiston, Lyndsay Duncombe and Paul Hunter on the biggest U.S. stories — election or otherwise — of 2020.
Finally, we check in with journalist Paul Salopek about his epic, around-the-world on-foot journey. The pandemic has put a pause on the trip, and he says it's also changed the way he thinks about it. We last spoke to Salopek in April. Today Catherine Cullen reaches him in Myanmar.