Consider This from NPR Folgen

The state of California has filed a massive lawsuit against oil companies. The charge is that oil companies knew they were causing climate change, and lied to cover it up. And now, California is suing for damages. The state is suing to force fossil fuel companies to help fund recovery efforts related to California's extreme weather related events — floods, fire, dangerous heat --which have been made more common and intense by climate change. Back in the 1990s, states across the country sued tobacco companies - demanding that they be compensated for healthcare costs associated with treating people for smoking-related illnesses. It was a long and complicated process, but states won more than $360 billion. The victory brought a big change to the tobacco industry, forcing companies to accurately label cigarettes as potentially lethal, and limiting where and how cigarettes could be marketed. Host Ailsa Chang speaks with Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity on the ramifications of the climate lawsuit.A previous version of this episode did not include a statement from the American Petroleum Institute responding to Richard Wiles' comments.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On Monday, five Americans who were imprisoned in Iran, stepped off a plane in Doha, Qatar. They were freed as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the U.S. and Iran.Despite the happy news, the Biden administration is facing a lot of criticism for this deal, which also gave Iran access to about $6 billion of its oil revenue - money that had been frozen under sanctions targeting the government in Tehran. The deal also comes just a little over a year after the death of a young Kurdish-Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini. Her death sparked the biggest anti-regime protests that Iran had seen in years. NPR's Arezou Rezvani tells us about the legacy of those protests a year later. We also hear reporting from NPR's Michele Kelemen about the U.S.-Iran prisoner swap. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Since becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy has faced the constant threat that members of the right wing of his own Republican Party could move to oust him from power. And now, many view his launch of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden as a political move to protect his flank.Host Scott Detrow speaks with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about McCarthy's political dilemma and with NPR's Congressional Correspondent Deirdre Walsh.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy