In a major change of U.S. policy, President Biden has given Ukraine the green light to begin striking inside Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles. The decision comes just two months before Donald Trump takes office and as North Korean troops have begun supporting Russia on the battlefield.

The New York Times reports Biden’s own aides were divided on the decision, with some fearing this could lead to Russia retaliating against the U.S. Earlier today, the Kremlin accused the Biden administration of adding “oil to the fire.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Sunday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky: “Today there’s lots of talk in the media about us receiving permission for respective actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves. They certainly will. Glory to Ukraine.”

Over the weekend, Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s power grid, resulting in major blackouts. In the city of Sumy, a Russian missile hit a residential building, killing 11 people, including two children.

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s war on Gaza constitutes genocide. This comes as the official death toll in Gaza nears 44,000, but that is believed to be a vast undercount.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike on a residential tower in Beit Lahia killed as many as 72 people. On Saturday, Israel struck a school in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp housing displaced people. At least 10 Palestinians were killed. Another 10 Palestinians were killed in a strike on the Bureij refugee camp. This is Eid Abou Rikab, who lost cousins in the attack.

Eid Abou Rikab: “It’s one of the biggest crimes, something that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. Why target peaceful people sitting in their home? What could they possibly have to justify hitting them in their own house? If you want to target military personnel, go and search for them. The one who dies is always the civilian. We were forced to flee from the north and went to al-Mawasi, which they said was a safe place. Then you come and strike there.”

Israel is continuing to bombard Lebanon despite talk of a possible ceasefire. Al Jazeera reports eight more paramedics have been killed in Lebanon. On Friday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister urged Iran to persuade Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire deal with Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has assassinated Hezbollah’s media chief, Mohammed Afif. He was killed in an airstrike in central Beirut. Afif was one of the last remaining public faces of Hezbollah.

In Israel, three protesters have been detained after flares were fired near the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The incident occurred as protests continue calling for a ceasefire deal to free the remaining hostages in Gaza.

On Capitol Hill, House Republicans are attempting once again to ram through H.R. 9495, a bill that would allow Trump and future presidents to effectively shut down nonprofits by labeling them a “terrorist-supporting organization.” The measure could target humanitarian aid groups, news outlets, schools and countless civil society organizations. Congress failed to fast-track the bill last week, falling short of a required two-thirds majority despite dozens of Democrats voting in favor along with Republicans. But the next vote, which could happen this week, would likely only require a simple majority.

A coalition of groups said in a statement, “This bill was designed to criminalize organizations and activists who oppose the U.S.'s unconditional support of Israel's genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of Lebanese civilians.” Signatories to the statement included the Council on American-Islamic Relations and American Muslims for Palestine. Oxfam criticized the bill, saying Trump could use it to silence and censor critics, curb free speech and target political opponents.

Donald Trump has picked fracking executive Chris Wright to be energy secretary. Wright is CEO of Liberty Energy and serves on the board of Oklo, a nuclear power startup. Wright is a vocal supporter of oil and gas development who has denied climate change is a crisis.

Chris Wright: “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either. Humans and all complex life on Earth is simply impossible without carbon dioxide, hence the term 'carbon pollution' is outrageous.”

We’ll have more on Chris Wright’s record later in the program.

More details have emerged about a sexual assault allegation against Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host picked by Donald Trump to become defense secretary. Hegseth has been accused of assaulting a woman in a hotel room in 2017 after he addressed the California Federation of Republican Women. Hegseth’s lawyer has claimed the encounter was consensual, but The Washington Post reports Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed amount after she signed a nondisclosure agreement.

In other transition news, Trump has picked Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr to chair the agency. Carr wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC for the Heritage Foundation. He is a critic of Big Tech who is expected to roll back many Biden-era policies, including net neutrality protections. Carr has served on the FCC since 2017.

In the Philippines, a landslide caused by Super Typhoon Man-yi killed at least seven people and destroyed dozens of houses in Nueva Vizcaya province as the northern Philippines suffered its sixth major storm in under a month.

Danilo Dagdagan: “The floodwater from the typhoon and the surrounding provinces gushed here because the elevation of the land here is lower. … It makes our lives difficult. It’s hard for us. Especially for those of us without sufficient food, it’s dreadful.”

Southeast Asia is one the world’s most vulnerable regions to the worsening climate crisis as rising ocean temperatures lead to more frequent and destructive storms.

The U.N. climate summit here in Baku, Azerbaijan, has entered its second and final week. On Saturday, activists held a silent protest to demand the phase-out of fossil fuels, climate financing for the Global South and a just transition to clean energy. Earlier today, activists called for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. This is Mohamed Kamal from the Egyptian group Greenish.

Mohamed Kamal: “When we’re calling for an energy embargo, we’re calling it because it’s the primary source that is fueling this genocide. We need action and not commitment. Words are empty. We need this action to be in front of us. People in the region have been speaking out, but governments are not matching that action at all. So we need to see these commitments happening. We need that energy embargo.”

President Biden and other world leaders are gathering in Brazil for the G20 summit. Ahead of the meeting, Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest. On Saturday, Indigenous protesters in Rio de Janeiro took giant cutouts of Biden and other world leaders and sank them in the water to demand more action on the climate crisis. This is Kleber Karipuna of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.

Kleber Karipuna: “In anticipation of the meeting of big global leaders of the G20, we are sinking these heads to represent how these leaders, who head some of the biggest economies in the world, are failing to face climate change.”

In a separate protest, activists in Brazil placed 733 plates on Copacabana Beach to represent the 733 million people suffering from hunger in the world. Antônio Carlos Costa is the founder of the group Rio de Paz.

Antônio Carlos Costa: “We placed 733 empty plates on the sand of Copacabana Beach, symbolizing the 733 million human beings who went hungry last year, according to data provided by the United Nations. The aim of this public act is to demand that the public authorities attending G20 here in Rio de Janeiro make a swift commitment to eradicating hunger.”

Palestinian rights protesters also marched in Rio on Saturday to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon ahead of the G20 summit.

A Guatemalan appeals court has overturned the order that released journalist José Rubén Zamora from prison to house arrest last month, and ordered him to return to jail. The National Press Club blasted the decision and what they called the “baseless and vindictive case brought by the Guatemalan government.” Zamora is the founder of El Periódico, which was shut down by the previous president, Alejandro Giammattei.

In Las Vegas, a man was shot dead by a police officer in his own home after he called 911 to report a break-in. Brandon Durham, a 43-year-old Black father and realtor, was with his 15-year-old daughter at the time, who survived the shooting. Durham’s partner spoke out against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police following the deadly shooting, saying, “What are you looking at? Not the colors of the clothes. You’re looking at the color of the skin, and that’s why he’s dead.”

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the killing of Sonya Massey in her kitchen by a sheriff’s deputy in July. Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, had called 911 for help after suspecting a possible intruder was outside her home. The Sangamon County, Illinois, deputy, Sean Grayson, who is white, has been charged with first-degree murder.

The family of Malcolm X has filed a $100 million federal lawsuit against the New York Police Department, CIA and FBI, claiming the agencies engaged in a “fraudulent concealment and cover-up” of his assassination in 1965. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is representing the family.

Benjamin Crump: “The government fingerprints are all over the assassination of Malcolm X.”